The Sister bond: A feminist view of a timeless connection (The Athene series)

Description

Sisters: two or more women, related by blood, adoption, marriage, or religious commitment and service; or, large groups of women drawn together by bonds of feminist thought and practice. For the purposes of this collection, l use the term to refer to two women related by blood, most often growing up in the same house, in the same room, often sleeping in the same bed. As are all women, such sisters are taught by literature and culture to compete for the attention of men, beginning often with their father. Yet when asked to speak about their connections with each other, members of these pairs usually find themselves articulating a deep and turbulent bond, one that precedes and outlasts friendships, courtships, even marriages. A search of the literature reveals almost no work on this subject. Aside from Louise Bernikow's brave words in her chapter "Sometimes I feel like a sisterless child" (Among Women, Harper & Row, 1980), I find only an occasional poem or novel about the tangle of sisterhood . As with the examination of the mother daughter bond that began a few years ago, the best source of information remains primary documents by the women themselves or the rare biography that treats their relationship seriously. Contents How Little We Know andHow Much We Feel Grace and Edith Abbott Maria: Christina Rossetti's Irreplaceable Sister and Friend Of Fanny and Camilla Wright No Connections Subsequent: Jane Austen's World of Sisterhood Florence Nightingale and the Bonds of Sisterhood Emily Dickinson's Vinnie & Susan Billy Goat to Dolphin: Letters of Virginia Woolf to Her Sister, Vanessa Bell ''She Is The One You Call Sister'': Levertov's and Rich's Poems on Sisterhood Current Sisters Speak About Their Bonds Index