Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius

A lyrical meditation on the enduring obstacles women artists and writers face in a world still unaccustomed to recognizing female genius. n n What does it take for a woman to don the mantle of genius -- a title long reserved for male artists? From her studies in Montreal to a dead-end job in Berlin, a midnight tour of Paris, a bankrupt art residency on the Toronto Islands, and a mysterious sculpture garden in the Karoo desert, South African--Canadian author and professor Kasia Van Schaik considers what it means for a young woman to call herself an artist and claim a creative life. n n Drawing on a diverse web of literary and cultural sources and artistic icons -- from Georgia O'Keeffe to Ana Mendieta, Gertrude Stein to Jamaica Kincaid, Leslie Marmon Silko to Bernadette Mayer -- Women Among Monuments asks, What, beyond a room of one's own, are the necessary conditions for female genius? Where does the inner flint of artistic permission come from? What is the oxygen that keeps it burning? n nIn her memoir interwoven with incisive biographies of female solitude, constraint, and perseverance, Van Schaik blazes a trail for more inclusive artmaking practices, communities, and monuments.