Theme 1: Gender Roles & Patriarchy — Winter: My Secret Flashcards
(5 cards)
1
Q
What quote from Winter: My Secret resists patriarchal intrusion?
A
“I tell my secret? No indeed, not I.”
2
Q
What does “not I” suggest about gender and power?
A
The speaker asserts agency through withholding – a subversion of the ‘confessional’ female stereotype.
3
Q
What feminist context relates to secrecy in Winter: My Secret?
A
Judith Butler: gender is performative – withholding becomes a means of resisting fixed roles.
4
Q
What does Teresa Lii argue about ambiguity in this poem?
A
“Rossetti empowers her speaker through ambiguity and self-concealment.”
5
Q
What moment in A Doll’s House reflects strategic secrecy like Winter?
A
Nora’s concealment of the loan in Act I shows a woman using silence to preserve autonomy.
