Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Within the Guidelines of Feminist Discour

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Within the Guidelines of Feminist Discourse Surprisingly, in spite of being a male from the 1970s, Tom Robbins has written a novel, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, supporting feminism. This is a term that most of us are familiar with; yet, what is feminism? The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism defines "feminist purpose" for us as "an active desire to change women's position in society" (Brown, Meginis, and Bardari, 231). In order to discuss feminism in terms of Robbin's novel, we need to know what feminist theory means when applied to literature. According to Jonathon Culler, a professor of English and comparative literature at Cornell University and author of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, feminist theory is based on "women writers and the representation of women's experience" (124). Naturally, Robbins does not fit the first category of being a woman author since he is male. Nevertheless, his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues fits within Culler's description of feminist novels that "cha mpion the identity of women [and] demand rights for women" (123-124). Robbins does this through the development of his female characters and the plot. Robbins produces a strong female character named Sissy Hankshaw whose beauty is marred by enormous, somewhat useless thumbs. In order to become independent, Sissy leaves the repressive atmosphere in her southern home by participating in the male-dominated phenomenon of hitchhiking as embodied by Jack Kerouac in On the Road. Sissy herself says in reference to her hitchhiking, "I'm the best there is, ever was or ever will be" (53) and develops a national reputation as a hitchhiker. She even competes with and befriends the... ... Jonathan Culler. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1997. Karl, Frederick R. Critique of Tom Robbins. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz. 233 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990. Perso, Jeffrey. "The Lost Highway." MetroActive Travel Online. 1 May 1997. 9 April 2001. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/05.01.97/hitchhike-9718.html. Robbins, Tom. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. New York: Bantam, 1976. Siegel, Mark. Critique of Tom Robbins. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz. 233 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990. Travis, Cheryl Brown, Kayce L. Meginnis, and Kristin M. Bardari. "Beauty, Sexuality, and Identity: The Social Control of Women." Sexuality, Society, and Feminism. Ed. Cheryl Brown Travis and Jacquelyn W. White. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2000.