Women in Dark Times

by Jacqueline Rose

Jacqueline Rose's heroines could not appear more different from each other: revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg; German-Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, persecuted by family tragedy and Nazism; film icon and consummate performer Marilyn Monroe.Yet historically these women have a shared story to tell, as they blaze a trail across some of the most dramatic events of the last century - revolution, totalitarianism, the American dream. Enraged by injustice, they are each in touch with what is most painful about being human, bound together by their willingness to bring the unspeakable to light.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Womens, Biography, Historical, Essays

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2014

About the author

Jacqueline Rose, FBA (born 1949, London) is a British academic who is currently Professor of Humanities at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.

Rose was born into a non-practicing Jewish family. Her elder sister was the philosopher Gillian Rose. Jacqueline Rose is known for her work on the relationship between psychoanalysis, feminism and literature. She is a graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford and gained her higher degree (maîtrise) from the Sorbonne, Paris and her doctorate from the University of London.

Her book Albertine, a novel from 2001, is a feminist variation on Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.

She is best known for her critical study on the life and work of American poet Sylvia Plath, The Haunting of Sylvia Plath, published in 1991. In the book, Rose offers a postmodernist feminist interpretation of Plath's work, and criticises Plath's husband Ted Hughes and other editors of Plath's writing. Rose describes the hostility she experienced from Hughes and his sister (who acts as literary executor to Plath's estate) including threats received from Hughes about some of Rose's analysis of Plath's poem "The Rabbit Catcher". The Haunting of Sylvia Plath was critically acclaimed, and itself subject to a famous critique by Janet Malcolm in her book The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

Rose is a regular broadcaster on and contributor to the London Review of Books.

Rose's States of Fantasy was the inspiration for composer Mohammed Fairouz's Double Concerto of the same title.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was... okay. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. There's a large focus on women and the second world war, so you need to have a basic understanding of political terms (fascism, Marxism, nationalism, capitalism, communism etc.) or it will go right over your head, as none of the terms are expanded upon but they're all touched upon quite frequently.
I was interested in reading about the struggles of women throughout all of history, so this was a bit more niche than I'd expected. I don't really like Jacqueline Rose's writing style, as her sentences are just too long - it sounds pedantic, but when every sentence has three or four clauses in it... It's all a bit too much jibber jabber for me.
Nice idea, not so good in the execution.

[James Tierney]

http://www.killyourdarlingsjournal.co...

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodness this book was hard work, and not because of the subject matter either. Rose's style is dry and academic but there are moments where her passion does manage to break through and this grabs you and keeps you going. I found myself skim reading large sections where she delves into the analysis of the artwork of the women covered (including the analysis on Monroe's movies) to get to the sections about the women themselves. In doing so I found this became far more readable and user friendly but I know it means I have undoubtedly missed a lot of interesting and potentially important points. Sadly Rose was unable to open artwork analysis to a heathen like me (I knew there was a reason I liked science!). Having said that, Rose does show that there are many women who fought various battles over the last century to make gains in the Women's Rights movement that we haven't heard about or necessarily associated with feminism. And this is nothing but a good thing. I just wish she could analyze less and emote more. Those moments where she let her emotions and passions through saved this book for me.

[Bridget Bonaparte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just doesn’t cohere in the slightest. Like ‘The Plague’ Rose has a tendency to just pluck out random quotations and place them beside another quotation. She consistently refuses to do the analytical work that would make her connections mean something. Again she risks false equivalence but inadequately contextualizing, choosing, and explaining the relevance to her overall project. The overall effect is a loss of her voice as she lets other critics or quotes do the talking for her. It’s sloppy writing. The way she accomplishes any kind of ‘argument’ is simply to issue an injunction to the reader to remember that last time she referenced that person/quote/idea. She combines this tendency with a habit of referencing an idea that has not been proven with “as I have made clear by now.” The section on Salomon spends about twenty pages discussing the Marion Milner’s book which is not about Salomon. To say nothing of the bizarre section on honour killing (ironically the best written) which bears seemingly no connection to the rest of the book. In order to make these types of linkages, the intellectual simply needs to do the difficult interpretative work of forging affinities. Girl, get back to the basics: make an argument and prove it. This is not a template for a scandalous feminism, it’s just a bad book.

[Justus Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is many things — history, biography, cultural critique — but moreover it is Jacqueline Rose’s call for women to take action, as“[w]e as women have been reasonable for far too long.” She begins with the story of three women: Rosa Luxemburg, a controversial socialist; Charlotte Salomon, a German-Jewish painter; and Marilyn Monroe, the film icon. Rose then argues that each was a feminist vanguard of her respective generation. From their example, Rose begins to explore the roles women take in modern societies, particularly as it pertains to art and creation. Her plea for a meaningful feminist movement is an intellectually invigorating and encouraging read.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complex, nuanced, intellectually rigorous, WOMEN IN DARK TIMES, challenged me to think.

Jacqueline Rose explores the stories of women, each remarkable, who have faced oppression, brutality, disdain, idealization, inequity in all its forms, and carved a path to express their creativity and humanity whilst walking in that space between private and public pain.

" Just imagine, it is precisely those bruises on my soul that at the next moment gave me the courage for a new life. " -Rosa Luxemburg

The women she writes about, artists, revolutionaries, survivors do not try to block out the dark but bring the dark to our full attention, allowing us to look at what they have faced.

Rose's analysis celebrates the nuance, contradiction, ambiguity and all those complex and murky phases that each woman's life traverses as she faces brutality and violence to her body and soul. Rose and the women she presents to us reject a monolithic "truth". This is refreshing but also makes reading this work more difficult for those who might want the illusion of certainties than the reality of uncertainty. Translating these ideas into our own lives, placing the pattern of spontaneity and uncertainty on the events of our lives, brings a lucid brightness to the courage each of us exhibits every day in the face of the discrimination we live with.

Brilliant book.

[Amanda Rosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jacqueline Rose is one of the finest intellectuals of our generation, and her writing is fierce and always subtle, her analysis supple, her trail of thoughts clear and smooth.

However, despite all its parts being valuable and captivating, this book feels loosely and unevenly woven together, as if there was no particul trait d'union other than the loose argument of darkness and feminism as a movement that ought to bring forth the darkness in women. I think it was an unwise editorial decision, rather than something lacking in Rose's analysis.

It is the usual situation when all the essays in this book are interesting and politically powerful, and yet there is little to no cohesion amongst them.

I still recommend to read it, Rose is a trailblazer and everything she writes is worth reading, bit this one did not entirely hit the spot for me.

[Oliveb · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book was tough to get through, reading it as though I was studying it - taking notes, underlining etc. made it a lot easier to digest. I found reading about artworks I had never seen was a really interesting experience because I could imagine the artworks completely for myself. The title is a little bit misleading as it suggested at first that Rose was saying women are in dark times but in reality the book gives various accounts of what women do in dark times personally, politically and globally.

I don't think I would actually recommend this book to anyone, but anyone who commits to getting through the somewhat dry, intellectual parts will be rewarded.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having heard the author interviewed I was interested in reading her book. It has given me food for thought and for ongoing discussion, which I appreciated. Much of the talk around feminism seems to set its parameters by using the known paradigms, usually from the historical patriarchal influences, whereas in this book I read of a more inclusive human approach to the way we as a collective could start thinking. The examples of the women who have stood on this ground, struggled with the ideas, suffered for standing up for new possibilities makes it a valuable read.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be truthful, I only read half of this book. I enjoyed the sections on Rosa Luxemburg, Charlotte Salomon and Marilyn Monroe. They were really interesting in showing what each woman struggled to achieve. Mighty achievements too. The mix of history and feminist analysis was very successful. After that, things just got too grim - I skimmed the long honour killings section, fearful of what it contained . It's valuable and original, we really should all be reading this book.

[ida]

Highly recommend getting the audiobook of you struggle with the academic prose. Audiobooks disappear from my memory pretty much the second I’m done, but really liked the chapter on Fadime Sahindal and loved the one on Marilyn Monroe, which I listened to twice over

[Bridie Tulloch]

Second attempt at reading this as I skimmed through it first time around. Dissecting it bit by bit this time as it’s quite academic in comparison to my usual reads.

[Lottie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

started off interesting (I love Rosa Luxemburg) but fell off pretty dramatically

[Mairead · Rating 3 out of 5]

philosophical

[Allanah Freddi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way Jacqueline Rose writes. This book was very insightful.

[Britt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only finished this book because I have problems not finishing a book, but there were many times I wanted to stop. Rose's book is a feminist book focusing on 7 women who struggled thru dark times starting in the early 1900s to create better futures for men and women. 6 of the women I had not heard of, but had or have led both amazing and sometimes horrible lives (like dying pregnant in a concentration camp, being killed by your parents in an "honor" killing). My problem with the book includes the way it was organized. I liked that it was chronological, but then having a theme of these 6 artists and one chapter on honor killing thrown in was weird. Ending with three modern artists that I didn't understand why they were thrown in was odd too. It was also difficult to read with various historical, literary, and art references that went over my head. The chapter on Marilyn Monroe and Charlotte Salomon were my favs. There is a lot in this book and it might be better to pick and choose what to read.

[Liza]

I requested this book from the library because Jessa Crispin recommended it in a tarot/astro reading (she also recommended Bostonians which was uncannily on point!). There is something I like about when someone clearly feels something really passionately in a way that is not entirely legible to me, which is what I would say was going on in this book. Still I have to admit I didn't finish it before it poofed away from my ereader. Maybe someday will try again.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's quite simple. I'm simply not well educated enough or intellectual enough to understand this book. I was looking to forward to reading about Ros Luxemburg, Charlotte Salomon and Marilyn Monroe but I just couldn't drag myself through the dense analysis.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected it to be, was hard work at times, but a worthwhile project.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose takes the lives of nine women, references about 50 more during the discussion of each, and tries her darnedest to find a connection between them all. For some reason, it works. World War I and II arise in the text just as often, as if Rose is trying to connect these lives to the war as well. This is where the book falters slightly, but I can see where she's coming from. Almost.

I didn't know most of the women mentioned, but I came out this book feeling like I understood them. Rose has a great empathy, not just for feminism and her interpretation of it, but for the women affected too.

Also - it's not nearly as dense as half these other reviews would have you believe. It's just heavy with references, and suffers from the odd questionable syntax choice.

[yes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose takes the lives of nine women, references about 50 more during the discussion of each, and tries her darnedest to find a connection between them all. For some reason, it works. World War I and II arise in the text just as often, as if Rose is trying to connect these lives to the war as well. This is where the book falters slightly, but I can see where she's coming from. Almost.

I didn't know most of the women mentioned, but I came out this book feeling like I understood them. Rose has a great empathy, not just for feminism and her interpretation of it, but for the women affected too.

Also - it's not nearly as dense as half these other reviews would have you believe. It's just heavy with references, and suffers from the odd questionable syntax choice.