Diana Trilling
THE LIBERATED HEROINE
T here is a rela tively new presence on the contempora ry
literary scene, someon e I ca ll " the libera ted hero ine." In a general way,
it is no t diffi cult to defin e wha t I mean by the libera ted heroine. She is a
ficti onal crea ti on whose first concern is the expl ora ti on and rea liza tion
of female selfhood; thi s in ves tiga ti on of self undertakes to be indepen–
dent of the traditi onal di cta tes of society as these pertain to fema le
behavio r and the rela tion of the sexes. T he libera ted heroine's pursuit
of self-knowl edge tends to be overt and even programma ti c but it is no t
necessary tha t thi s should be so. Usuall y she is the spokeswoman for a
fema le author but this too is no t a necessity.
Although I speak of the libera ted heroine as a rela ti vely new fi gure
in litera ture, it is impo rtant to recognize tha t she is no t a sudden
apparition in our culture. She has had noteworthy forerunners before
th ese las t ten to fifteen years and she has been in preparati on-gradual,
not o ften visibl e prepara tion-throughout the whole of litera ry and
social hi story. As a ma tter of fact, so large a part of wha t I am about to
say is addressed to the hero ine as an hi stori cal fi gure that it would
perhap s have been more appropria te to have described my subj ect as
"The Evo lution of the Libera ted Heroine." But this would h ave been
mi sleading too becau se it would have promised a closer hi stori ca l study
than is possibl e within the space I have here.
A general definition of wha t is meant by a libera ted heroin e is, as I
say, no t very difficult to settl e on .
It
is when one tri es to be more precise
abo ut the two words, " libera ted" and " h eroine," tha t the situa tio n
becomes compl ex, and interes tin g. The very concept of libera ti on is
ambi guou s in ce it rests on wha t we beli eve we a re being libera ted from
a nd to. T hi s was striking ly illustra ted earl y in the current women 's
movement wh en white middl e- cl ass activists in the movement were
stress ing th e need for women to get out of the home, whil e th ere were
bl ack working-class women fo r whom libera tion meant the freedom to
stay h ome and take care of their own famili es instead of caring for
white peoples' hou ses and children . As I had occasion to rema rk in
