An original reinterpretation of Eve and the Garden of Eden that offers women a new sense of feminine power and opportunity.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Last in a trilogy on the cultural implications of women's preoccupation with food (The Obsession, The Hungry Self), this radical, visionary work also follows The Flame Bearers, a novel on a sect of Jewish women that secretly worshipped the Mother Goddess. Though it is loosely structured and bogs down in psychoanalytic jargon and the author's murky, mystical personal quest, this is, nonetheless, an intriguing study of an issue of ascending import: how women can recreate a female psyche that will effectively challenge and transform traditional patriarchal culture. From Chernin's keen perspective, women, if they are to tap their authentic potential, must reclaim forgotten forms of female knowledge and power, often repressed because they are associated with oppressive mothers or religious taboos. Her discussion of the dilemma of Eve in the Garden of Edenwhether to eat or not to eat a forbidden foodexplores the meaning of food vis-a-vis female creativity and its prohibition in a father-dominated culture. Eve, "a heroine of disobedience," discovers she has been made in the image of the Mother Goddess and possesses her capacity for self-assertion, sovereignty and sensuality. Chernin also proffers a provocative "breast" theory to replace the traditional penis-envy explanation of why a girl turns from the mother and chooses the father in the course of normal development.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Kim Chernin is a guest instructor at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, where she teaches a course in psychoanalytic models with Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer. She is the author of two books about eros and memory, Crossing the Border and Sex and other Sacred Games (with Renee Stendhal); a trilogy of books on hunger, The Obsession, The Hungry Self, and Reinventing Eve; a novel, The Flame Bearers; a memoir, In My Mother's House; a collection of poetry, The Hunger Song; a book about psychoanalysis, A Different Kind of Listening; and a spiritual memoir, In My Father's Garden. She has studed music on her own since the age of seven, when she first began to play the piano.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
My mother used to say: "Behind every story is another story." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
My mother used to say: "Behind every story is another story." Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
While I largely agree with the Publisher's Weekly review, I did not find Chernin's writings loosley structured. This book moved logically through the author's journey to find the missing links that connect women to the diety in whose image they are created. She kept her explorations balanced with the solid theories of Freud and Jung while delving into areas many traditionalists might shudder to think of. (And as a long-time frowner upon p...-envy theories, I am happy to see a legitimate alternative appear.) If nothing else, this book inspires the reader to question the traditional creation stories and lays the foundation for women to reclaim their power in the world.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
inspiring and relevant
Mar 17 2004
By Cara Stoneham
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
While I largely agree with the Publisher's Weekly review, I did not find Chernin's writings loosley structured. This book moved logically through the author's journey to find the missing links that connect women to the diety in whose image they are created. She kept her explorations balanced with the solid theories of Freud and Jung while delving into areas many traditionalists might shudder to think of. (And as a long-time frowner upon p...-envy theories, I am happy to see a legitimate alternative appear.) If nothing else, this book inspires the reader to question the traditional creation stories and lays the foundation for women to reclaim their power in the world.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see the review
4.0 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian
- Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gender Studies
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology > Social Groups
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
