Page 150 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 150
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 5–6
to emancipation, which is the power (or weakness) of the female voice in
public space. The struggle for women’s emancipation is thus a struggle for
this voice, to be heard and to be able to take over political power as well.
Only then will women’s voice not sink into the deafness of silence. As she
writes “My aim here is to take a long view, on the cultural awkward re-
lationship between the voice of women and the public sphere of speech
– making, debate and comment: politics in its widest sense, from office
committees to the floor of the House” (p. 8).
When Mary Beard thus takes us through countless stories and char-
acters from the culture history and shows the attempts to silence women
are so loud that the Meta from Ivan Tavčar’s dystopian novel 40001 simply
cannot be overlooked. The scene where the father lieutenant complains to
the father major about his “unbearable unfortunate” as a result of the new
regulation, which imposes silence on women, is eloquent:
So, old Meta is with me and she is a good soul, and certainly a poor soul.
Ever since Archbishop Martinus introduced the strictest regulation of
Blessed Anton of Kal – now half a year since it is imposed – every speak-
ing has been forbidden to women. You know that! My Meta hadn’t ut-
tered a word in six months, but she carries millions of words within her.
These words, which are locked in her now, force out everywhere, from
her eyes, from her ears. Oh, how she twisted, how she sighed, how she
pursed her mouth, but she was not allowed to speak, if she did not want
to take part in mortal sin and if she did not want to fall for the ruthless
Inquisition against women’s speaking! (Tavčar, 1948, p. 39)
Although the father lieutenant was afraid Meta would suffer a stroke
and that she would be suffocated by talking, “which is certainly possible
with a woman” (ibid., p. 39), he did not want to order the stretcher of the
blessed Anton of Kal.2 This device namely “successfully clogs the wom-
en’s mouth” in such cases, but “it covers the woman’s face too much and
this is the most beautiful in a woman!” (ibid., pp. 39–40) and “wounds
1 Ivan Tavčar’s satirical dystopian novel 4000 was published in 1891 and is mainly a reflection
of the political and cultural conflicts between clericals and liberals in the territory of to-
day’s Slovenia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The novel takes
place in the year 4000 in Ljubljana, which is again named Emona (the Latin name for Lju-
bljana during the time of the Roman empire), and the territory of Slovenia is named Pope’s
Province number LII. The novel begins when the angel Azrael awakens a Slovenian liberal
who died 2000 years before and shows him the orders and habits in Emona, which, natu-
rally, are the image of th ideas spread in the then clerical circle in Tavčar’s time.
2 The character of Blessed Anton of Kal is based on the most conservative leader of the
cleric wing Anton Mahnič, who lived in Tavčar’s time, wrote in Latin and as an educator
preached about the danger and corrupting influence of the German and Slovenian poets,
writers and philosophers being taught to students in public schools at that time.
148
to emancipation, which is the power (or weakness) of the female voice in
public space. The struggle for women’s emancipation is thus a struggle for
this voice, to be heard and to be able to take over political power as well.
Only then will women’s voice not sink into the deafness of silence. As she
writes “My aim here is to take a long view, on the cultural awkward re-
lationship between the voice of women and the public sphere of speech
– making, debate and comment: politics in its widest sense, from office
committees to the floor of the House” (p. 8).
When Mary Beard thus takes us through countless stories and char-
acters from the culture history and shows the attempts to silence women
are so loud that the Meta from Ivan Tavčar’s dystopian novel 40001 simply
cannot be overlooked. The scene where the father lieutenant complains to
the father major about his “unbearable unfortunate” as a result of the new
regulation, which imposes silence on women, is eloquent:
So, old Meta is with me and she is a good soul, and certainly a poor soul.
Ever since Archbishop Martinus introduced the strictest regulation of
Blessed Anton of Kal – now half a year since it is imposed – every speak-
ing has been forbidden to women. You know that! My Meta hadn’t ut-
tered a word in six months, but she carries millions of words within her.
These words, which are locked in her now, force out everywhere, from
her eyes, from her ears. Oh, how she twisted, how she sighed, how she
pursed her mouth, but she was not allowed to speak, if she did not want
to take part in mortal sin and if she did not want to fall for the ruthless
Inquisition against women’s speaking! (Tavčar, 1948, p. 39)
Although the father lieutenant was afraid Meta would suffer a stroke
and that she would be suffocated by talking, “which is certainly possible
with a woman” (ibid., p. 39), he did not want to order the stretcher of the
blessed Anton of Kal.2 This device namely “successfully clogs the wom-
en’s mouth” in such cases, but “it covers the woman’s face too much and
this is the most beautiful in a woman!” (ibid., pp. 39–40) and “wounds
1 Ivan Tavčar’s satirical dystopian novel 4000 was published in 1891 and is mainly a reflection
of the political and cultural conflicts between clericals and liberals in the territory of to-
day’s Slovenia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The novel takes
place in the year 4000 in Ljubljana, which is again named Emona (the Latin name for Lju-
bljana during the time of the Roman empire), and the territory of Slovenia is named Pope’s
Province number LII. The novel begins when the angel Azrael awakens a Slovenian liberal
who died 2000 years before and shows him the orders and habits in Emona, which, natu-
rally, are the image of th ideas spread in the then clerical circle in Tavčar’s time.
2 The character of Blessed Anton of Kal is based on the most conservative leader of the
cleric wing Anton Mahnič, who lived in Tavčar’s time, wrote in Latin and as an educator
preached about the danger and corrupting influence of the German and Slovenian poets,
writers and philosophers being taught to students in public schools at that time.
148
