Running Head: Review of The Book Sharp by Michelle Dean 1

Running head: REVIEW OF THE BOOK SHARP BY MICHELLE DEAN 1
Review of the Book Sharp By Michelle Dean
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REVIEW OF THE BOOK SHARP BY MICHELLE DEAN 2
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion
Michelle Dean remedy to women criticism in the early 1920s is in form of a book
focusing on self-styled intellectuals radiating out inclusively the forerunners and inheritors. Dean
vividly documents lives and contributions of ten twentieth century women of American native
who made a significant contribution in the literature realm. American literary women including
Dorothy Parker and Janet Malcolm lies in the frontline towards the current women contribution
to American literature Dean (2018). In a men dominion, women managed to slip through the
cracks of literature and historical sophistication. Dean (2018) puzzles in the preface “The longer
I looked at the work these women laid out before me, the more puzzling I found it that anyone
could look at the literary and intellectual history of the twentieth century and not center women
in it.”
Sharp is a riposte to unruly decentering system precisely providing a counter-narrative to
the long enthrone tales of literary American fathers and sons. Along the tracks, Sharp provides a
catalog of strategies aimed to seek consciously and unconsciously women attention so as to
navigate men’s world precisely to counteract male dominance. Deans, therefore, offers a
complex scheme of stratagems that twentieth-century women ought to adopt in order to survive.
Sharp figuratively implies compliment, inferring that women profiled in this inscription
are of brains, witty and smart. Such women of valor include Pauline Kael and Nora Ephron who
comparatively believe in the strength of women to competitively survive in the sphere of men.
Moreover, Dean profiles Kael Pauline as a woman of peculiar traits as she takes up the boys club
of “auteur” (Brantley, 2015). Kael dismissed all male critics and acid rebuttal targeting her
domineering fanatical feminism. Amidst challenges, she became more daring and outstanding in
the literature domain.

American literature women were frequently trivialized as hysterical and as those who
lacked manners. The responses to the voice of these women at times exposed sharpness blended
with a thrill of commitment tipped far above madness. Dean again explores the bond that tightly
knit these women together. The intricate web both in the personal and institutional arena kept
them amalgamated. Always the ladies were together even in social gatherings including Arendt’s
funeral as revealed by the posthumous publication Life of the Mind by McCarthy as observed by
Nelson (2017). This connection that Dean unearthed meant all to women and literature. They
were essentially icons whether they are smashed or molded which had very little impact.
Conspicuously missing was a blend of all colors in literature vicinity. Deans painfully
brings this matter in chapter three where Zora Hurston is noted for her brevity. Black writers had
been excluded from this milieu of women writers as a show of racial segregation. Hurston
protested against this expulsion as she retaliates “The fact that there is no demand for incisive
and full-dress stories about Negroes above the servant class is indicative of something of vast
importance to this nation” (Dean, 2018). Hurston suffered a double eraser as a woman and as
African American coupled with burial in a segregated cemetery in Florida.
Well, critics in Dean’s book were not utterly friendly, tongue-lashing one another just as
strangers would do to outside targets. Pauline Kael critique to Joan Didion Novel ridiculously
meets the strongest opposition. This was such a harsh treatment especially to the female gender
who were considered weaklings in the society. Though feminine solidarity was lacking, men
could not fully quench the spirit of liberation and gender equality. Gender egalitarianism was
definitely the ultimate goal of the American literature women although through beaver.
Hostility to women feminism was even more adamant with astonishing views like
reluctivity, essentialism and overly emotional. Arendt, despite being a female openly rebuked
feminism as not serious declaring women liberation as a flop. Challenges from within are more
treacherous than those from without. This indeed was a grievous matter that even fueled male
chauvinism castigating a spirit of distress within the women fold. Whoopla information
concerning women liberation even by the women themselves is addressed by Dean as the
venomous serpent in one’s lodging. Clear sentiments from women of proper standing met clear-
cut direct opposition from fellow women of petty understanding according to Hart & Daughton
(2015).
Dean is very critical in ensuring she gives her honest opinion concerning feminism in
tandem with historical experience. She even imagines that at one particular moment, Hannah
Arendt would roll in her grave as approval of her inclusion in the book Sharp. She strongly
defends her course of study although encountered a number of female critics who probably were
involved in cutting women out of history. These female critics failed in their primary duty of
turning in support of the feminism. Naturally, women should explicitly offer unwavering
patronage to any effort aimed at elevating their status in society. Dean, therefore, encounters a
strange foe more grievous than those from the outside circle. Liberation for feminism would only
be fully achieved through unity fostered by women themselves. Women must brace themselves
to face fellow men in all the spheres of life.
Remarkably, feminism is supposed to be centered on sisterhood as per the comments of
Dean (2018). Though sisters also argue and quarrel to point of estrangement, this should never
distract women from the greatest antagonist. She remarks that human definition is not entirely
dependent on commonality but there should be put in place a workable feminist practice to foster
war towards female liberation. In the model of sense and sensitivity, human fractious dictates a
concise plan for women liberation that ought to be implemented by everyone in the club.
Conclusively, Dean’ s effort to rectify the dying spirit of women through de facto is a
substantive work that to date keeps women in the annals of America literature tenure. Dean
resurrects a distinctive strain of feminism political entanglement that plainly refutes masculine
stoicism. The gendered polarity of male machismo compelled unrelenting spirit of gorgeous
women fighters including Arendt, Didion, and Sontag. Women critics though fell short of
expected fashions of feminine response, there was a bizarre of sympathetic, emotional
expressiveness that brought more good than harm. Women experienced emotional detachment as
a legitimate substitute for the dogmas of empathy (Ridge, 2018). This book conspicuously
highlights issues of women segregation in literature, a wakening call for every young lady in the
society to boldly face life intrigues.

References
Brantley, W. (2015). Conversing with Kael. Talking about Pauline Kael: Critics, Filmmakers,
and Scholars Remember an Icon, 239.
Dean, M. (2018). Sharp: The Women who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. Hachette UK.
Retrieved from:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/08/sharp-women-art-opinion-michelle-
dean-review-biography
Hart, R. P., & Daughton, S. M. (2015). Modern rhetorical criticism. Routledge. Retrieved from:
9781315663555_googlepreview.pdf
Nelson, D. (2017). Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil. University
of Chicago Press.
Ridge, E. (2018). Sharp: the women who made an art of having an opinion/Tough enough:
Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil. Textual Practice, 32(8), 1451-1455.
Retrieved from:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0950236X.2018.1507664

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Running head: REVIEW OF THE BOOK SHARP BY MICHELLE DEAN 1

Review of the Book Sharp By Michelle Dean

Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion

Sharp is a riposte to unruly decentering system precisely providing a counter-narrative to

catalog of strategies aimed to seek consciously and unconsciously women attention so as to

the literature domain.

African American coupled with burial in a segregated cemetery in Florida.

to face fellow men in all the spheres of life.

Remarkably, feminism is supposed to be centered on sisterhood as per the comments of

expected fashions of feminine response, there was a bizarre of sympathetic, emotional

society to boldly face life intrigues.

and Scholars Remember an Icon, 239.

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