Women in literature and anonymity throughout history

When picking up a novel written decades or centuries ago, it was not uncommon to find “Anonymous” instead of the name of the author. In fact, between 1660 and 1750 approximately 50% of published prose fiction did not list an author on the title page, while a further 20% appeared under a pseudonym or tagline. Or perhaps, the only names that come to your mind are those of male authors, such as Ellis Bell, George Eliot or A. M. Barnard. Well, these are all actually pseudonyms for currently very well-known female writers who, at the time, felt the need to shield themselves behind these pen names. A great number of authoresses showed their opinion on this matter:

"I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman," wrote Virginia Woolf.

Poet Katharine Bradley, known under her pen name Michael Field, wrote “[We women] have many things to say the world will not tolerate from a woman’s lips.”

Charlotte Brontë also said that authoresses were “liable to be looked on with prejudice.”

This last quote leads us to the quiz of the problem. It seemed unworthy of a woman to dedicate her life to writing rather than being a housewife and creating or taking care of her family. For that reason, if a novel or book was published under a feminine name, not only would this work receive biased and unfair criticism, but it would also gravely affect this woman’s life. When a woman chose to reveal her name when publishing her work, her reputation would be pulverized. It seemed completely inappropriate for a woman of a certain range to pursue a career in writing fiction to earn money.  Derogatory terms such as ‘female quill-driver’ were common.

This is why it seemed much safer for many women to use a pen name and let their work be carried by the name of a man. This would allow them to explore many themes and subjects that society would not allow them to speak about or let their opinions be taken seriously. Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, talked about this issue in her work ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’, published anonymously. 

"Silly novels by lady novelists are a genus with many species, determined by the particular quality of silliness that predominates in them – the frothy, the prosy, the pious, or the pedantic."

Eliot thought that this genre of novel sabotaged the cause of women’s education. Even if the female characters and heroines were often intelligent and educated, they were represented many times as tedious and superficially witty, rather than with a strong sense of independence and will. Unfortunately, these novels seemed to take the lead and be the representation of all fiction written by women. This caused other works treating serious subjects to be dismissed by critics as light-hearted romances without even being read. 

Despite all of these reasons, there were still some writers who decided to use a feminine pen name, or to sign their novels with the byline “By a Lady”, that became really popular in the mid-18th century. Both of these options allowed the authoresses their anonymity and the chance to publish their work while making money without watching their personal life be affected by it. For instance, Jane Austen's first novel “Sense and Sensibility” (1811) appeared with the tag “By a Lady”. The rest of her novels followed a similar pattern, in order to hide her identity. It was not until the posthumous publication of “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” in 1817 that the world finally knew her name. 

However, the most common option was also hiding the gender of the author. This was the case with the Brontë sisters. When sending a number of her poems to a publisher, Charlotte Brontë received as a response: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be”. Since then, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë decided to go by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell when publishing their work. 

Another renowned author who chose to hide her identity was Louisa May Alcott. When publishing thrillers and novels with darker subjects, she used the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, but decided to start using her own name after “Little Women” arrived to the public. 

Although this may see like a practice that was long left behind, there are still authors that turn to pen names for different reasons. An example that may surprise many is J.K. Rowling, the author of the famous series “Harry Potter”. Her original name, Joanne Rowling, was intentionally changed to seem more masculine for a simple reason: her team believed that many young boys would not feel any appeal for a book written by a woman. That made her use the initial of her grandmother’s name, “Kathleen”, creating the well-known name J.K. Rowling. Later on, she used the pseudonym Robert Galbraith to publish a crime novel called “The Cuckoo’s Calling”, but a linguistic computer program discovered that the writing style used in the novel was equal to that of J.K.Rowling. This time, she used the male pen name so that her new book wouldn’t be associated with her already famous series, but rather receive valid criticism that wasn’t biased. 

Erika Mitchell, author of “50 Shades of Grey”, also decided to use the pseudonym E.L. James, so she could write the scandalous novel without the criticism and backlash, that would definitely be ruthless to a woman, affecting her personal life.

Hence, as we can see, time passing does not mean that things are changing so much. Women who nowadays dedicate their life to creating art; whether it is in the form of books, poems, songs or paintings, still face the most backlash from the media and the general public. However, we must not let this stop the progress that has already been made: in most parts of the world, women have as much creative liberty as men, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the authoresses that dared to do what they weren’t allowed. We should take them as an example to not limit ourselves, to be as creative as possible and not let others opinions affect our progress and work.

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