Essay 4: Feminist and Gender

My Writing Process

For my feminist paper, I wanted to work on a novel that was a bit unconventional. Obviously, I could work with Kate Chopin or Zora Neale Hurston, but I wanted a challenge. Rather than choosing an overtly feminist text to analyze for Feminist Theory, I wanted something that is a little more creative/ambiguous.
I decided to focus on the Turn of the Screw by Henry James, focusing on how the governess and her role in the novel represents the ways that women are manipulated out of power by the patriarchy.
For this paper, my professor required a proposal before we started to work on our first draft, just to make sure that we had chosen a good text to analyze. My proposal was approved, so I was ready to start writing.
My first draft was the first time in this class that I received a comment from my professor saying “Solid first draft of a paper”, so that helped me focus in on editing the details and not worrying about too much restructuring of the paper.
My second draft was a lot more focused, adding an important factor in the novel: the ghosts and what they represent. The ghosts obviously had to stand for something, seeing as they are the main focus of the novel. It was also important for me to make sure I paid attention to the fact that the main ghost in the novel that is cause of the governess’ suffering is a male.
With those finishing touches in my revision, I decided that my second draft was finalized, and I submitted it into my presentation portfolio.