Regular readers will be well aware of my ongoing interest in female protagonists – as hero or villain (here and here, so when Alyx Dellamonica invited me to contribute to the ongoing discussion of heroines, over on her blog, I jumped at the chance to consider key female figures in my early reading.
I found myself searching out C.S.Lewis’s books on the old favourites’ shelf – which was not at all what I expected, since as and when the question of Lewis’s treatment of women comes up these days, I’ll generally shake my head with mingled regret and exasperation over The Susan Issue.
You’ll have to read the piece to learn which book I ended up re-reading
(And while you’re there, get to know Alyx and her work, if you’re not already acquainted!)
Seeing your comment about the use of the word ‘heroine’ interested me. I’ve started using ‘hero’ like I do ‘actor’ – as a gender neutral word – because I’m fed up with all the negative connotations associated with the female gendered words. (It worked for ‘author’ – who, these days, uses ‘authoress’ any more?)
Agreed in all respects. And it really annoys me when eg Wikipedia still insist on dividing authors into ‘Writers’ and ‘Female Writers’….
No!! OMG! I did not know that. That’s just so misogynistic!