Reading from the Heart: 2woman, Literature, and the Search for True Love

Juhasz, an English professor at the University of Colorado, explores the intriguing notion that identification with characters in romantic fiction assists women with issues relating to selfhood. Drawing on novels she has read and theories of mother-infant bonding by psychologist D. W. Winnicott, she provides an autobiographical analysis of her relationships to literary figures. Juhasz posits, for example, that Jane Austen was her ``author-mother'' during a reading of Pride and Prejudice while in her teens, because she identified emotionally with Austen's heroine, Elizabeth Bennett, in her search for true love. Connections with other heroines created by such authors as Charlotte Bronte, Louisa May Alcott and Gloria Naylor helped her focus on many aspects of her own life. From reading lesbian romantic fiction, Juhasz was able to let bloom repressed sexual feeling toward women. A close and thoughtful look at varieties of romantic love for women. (Aug . )