Taboo, Silence and Voice in Women’s Writing – Intertidal Life as Case in Point

The CRIAW Papers comprises a continuing series of publications: original research papers advancing the knowledge and understanding of women’s experience.

Because women are excluded from patriarchal discourse, their voices become relegated to a negative space defined by what Man can neither hear, understand, nor value – a space that is thus “not-Man’s”. Women’s voices are relegated to this negatively valued space called “private”, because traditionally it is only in the home that their voices can be heard at all – over the back fence, kitchen table or telephone, and moreover, only by each other.