War Hawks and Doves: A "Muster" for American Women Writers
© Kathleen D. Anderson
The morning newspaper reports that America's soldiers have embarked in ground warfare in Afghanistan, and the feel of historical context surrounds me and invades my morning breakfast as I sit eating my toast and sipping my coffee.
As a mother, my heart aches for all of the women whose grown children must fight our country's newest battle. I feel a bit helpless, but then it occurs to me that as a writer, I know I can wield my own weapons---the power of words.
And, suddenly, I know that I am not alone.
I am more than one woman.
For although I am one writer, I descend from three generations of women who have suffered through previous wars and depressions, and in their writings have reflected the period in which the work was written.
In this writing, I would like to concentrate on the modernist era, the crisis times leading up to the Civil War and the coming of age during the American cultural enlightenment of the Reconstruction, to the populists and suffragists of the Gilded Age, to the Lost Generation of the Great Wars; American women writers who have seen and written about it all.
Their stories are shaped and formed by the influence of their time, and whether we like it or not, we respond to the influences, sometimes more consciously than other readers, particularly when we are knowledgable that it is a type of reading response.
But each reader responds to a piece of writing historically in his or her own way.
For my own part, I remember an English professor who once discussed how soldiers often assemble for battle or instruction in a kind of "muster." And, then of course, there is the "muster" where the names of the former military or naval soldiers are called out (some, or many, lost in battle).
With this in mind, I would like to begin by honoring the American women writers from the late 1800's until around 1939, the literary war hawks and doves, whom I feel have written pieces with historical context in mind---all of whom still live on---their past lives and times breathing today through their written words.
And, it is my hope that you will search out some of their writings that reflect our history and elicit a response that opens up our own history as we live it, and as others have lived it in the past.
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