Angel and Enchantress
RDENT feminists are bound to feel a little bitter at the fact that talks on the status of women still have news value. No lecturer would be likely to consider that a series of talks on The Position of Men as Reflected in Literature would be likely to draw the Saturday morning audience (the thought of its Big Sisterlike longevity would perhaps be a deterrent), even though nowadays that audience is composed equally of spear and distaff sides. But, bitterness apart, I found Mrs. Mountjoy’s first talk in her series informative, entertaining, and for a radio talk, original. She has begun the spinning of the two threads which are said to alternate in man’s reactions to woman-the thought of her as devil and enchantress, the spellbinder who weakens man against his will, and the conception of her as angel, symbol of bounty and increase, yet pedestalled in her immunity from fleshly desiresthreads not to be woven together till comparatively modern times, when woman is discovered to be merely a human being. Mrs, Mountjoy concluded her talk with a quotation from The Golden Ass of Apuleius, a passage listing the attributes of the goddess Isis; "the type and symbol of all that is best in women," and listening to it I felt there was much to be said for belonging to a sex whose position in literature could be revealed only in terms of the immortal, -~
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 383, 25 October 1946, Page 23
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238Angel and Enchantress New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 383, 25 October 1946, Page 23
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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