Show Notes
Spoiler alert!!! Many literary-curious readers have Flaubert’s 1857 debut novel, MADAME BOVARY, in their TBR stack. If that’s you, circle back to us after you’ve read this landmark of realism.
This episode offers a concise Flaubert biography, a sense of why this novel is considered important in the context of literary history, and whether or not you might want to read it. In terms of the fallen-woman narrative, we explore the role fantasy plays in women’s societal downfall. Is being a member of a lending library a precursor to disaster? Or does society fail women by educating them and then trapping them in mundane lives as wives and mothers? Is Emma Bovary a victim? Or is Emma Bovary a woman with agency who recklessly discards a perfectly wholesome life with a devoted husband, respectability, financial security, and a lovely, healthy child? In pursuing these questions, Flaubert claims to be objective…but can he be?
Along the way, Sonja shares TMI about truffles, and Vanessa doubts the wisdom of Dr. Bovary’s ride-with-a-hottie-in-the-woods remedy for curing a nervous wife.
More from In Walks a Woman
Women make up half the population, but only about 28% of Congress. What would change if more women held office? At In Walks a Woman, we believe stories shape reality, and if we change the stories, we can change who gets a voice. This episode asks what happens when we rewrite one of the biggest stories of all: who represents us.
Our guests today have just released two eye-opening books! In Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy, economist Misty Heggeness uses the stories of trailblazers like Taylor Swift to reveal how everyday American women shape the economy, often in ways the numbers never capture. In A Gun of Her Own: The Everyday Lives of Women Who Shoot, sociologist Margaret S. Kelley shows that for many women, a gun is about more than protection; it's a symbol of independence and control over their own lives.
Content note: This episode discusses sexual violence, which is depicted in the Netflix series. Please make sure this episode is a good fit for you.
Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, was so generous to join us in studio for a great interview about his new book, Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now, published by the University Press of Kansas. In his impressive tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, Clay honors some truly remarkable women who helped build and sustain their communities through their writing. Clay shares wonderful details about Mamie Boyd of Mankato, Zula Bennington Greene of Topeka, Donna Burough Opat of Lindsborg, and Lucile Bluford, who edited the Kansas City Call. We talk about a time when newspapers were truly local, and the people writing them were deeply woven into the lives of their towns. These women wrote about their neighbors, their politics, and their daily lives, and much of that writing has been lost, buried in the archives of small towns, some of which are nearly ghost towns today. Clay's book brings their words back into the light. Kansas is remarkable for so many reasons, and its legacy of fearless local opinion writing is one of them. As an opinion writer himself, Clay isn't studying the craft from the outside. He explores these columnists with the insight of someone who knows exactly what it takes to put your opinions in print, week after week, for the community you call home.
Content Note: This episode discusses war, physical trauma and injury, PTSD, and suicide, as portrayed in the novel and in the historical record. Please take care while listening, and feel free to skip or pause as needed.