Learning how to read was my rite de passage.
Alberto Manguel
In his extensive work on the history of reading, Alberto Manguel makes a connection between the motif of reading and the relatively new literary model of initiation. In this blog series, I want to show how female protagonists go through a totally different type of initiation compared to their male counterparts – a journey through th the medium of books and through reading.
What is initiation?
Initiation is, according to the Cambridge dictionary, described as “special ceremony or responsibility that signals the acceptance of someone into a group”. The term originally comes from the anthropology. It was then adapted for literary texts after the Second World War. The literary concept of initiation describes the phased introduction of a young man into society. In literature, the young man goes on a life-changing journey and gains new experiences, knowledge and morals. They help him to either submerge into the society or to demarcate from it.
Male and female protagonists – a short comparison
Female protagonists, especially in older texts, are not allowed to travel. They have to stay at home and let the young men go out into the world and experience life out there. Of course, there are texts in which female protagonists are travelling. A few examples are Doris Lessing’s Martha Quest or Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out. There are also young male protagonists who read. Examples are Karl Philipp Moritz’ Anton Reiser, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Gottfried Keller’s Green Henry. These texts are defined as Bildungsroman and have not been researched in the light of initiation. It is interesting to point out that the male protagonists in the above-mentioned books are reading, however, it is travelling that has an impact on their lives and changes them. The male protagonists get encouraged to discover the world by books. The contrast between female limitation and male freedom can be illustrated clearly using these examples.
Female initiation – What does that even mean?
Initiation always also means a loss of innocence, so that female initiation is often only connected to a sexual introduction. The young girl gets a male mentor who introduces her to society, either through marriage or pure sexual seduction. Young girls are, due to a lack of female tutors, introduced to a clear heterosexual, male-dominated world and have to renounce their own desires and wishes. Why is it not possible for female protagonists to establish themselves in the society around them without having to give themselves up? There is no own, independent world in which the female protagonists can grow into. The society is always already male-dominated and occupied with male dogmas.
I wanted to find a female pendant to the male initiation journey and I believe that it can be found through reading. The male initiation journey finds its counterpart in the female reading.
Next week, I will discuss the concept of initiation a bit further and what this concept means in literature. I will also discuss which books I looked into to see how female initiation through reading is represented in classics and contemporary literature.
Do you believe that books and reading can change the world?
