Woman's third age : The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble

Vol.35,No.1(2009)

Şebnem Toplu

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/105130

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Abstract
Margaret Drabble's The Seven Sisters (2002) evolves the middle-aged Candida Wilton's quest for a life after marriage and menopause: "woman's third age", "the age of ageing". Rendered redundant by her husband Andrew, headmaster of a Suffolk school, rejected by her three daughters Ellen, Isobel, and Martha, and replaced by Anthea Richards, Candida has abandoned Suffolk and relocated in the anonymity of London. Yet, Candida is quite courageous and starts an odyssey with six other women friends and the journey forms only one quarter of the interestingly structured novel. Drabble's narrative style is poignant; nevertheless, her last fiction is regarded as very depressing by some reviewers, despite the unusual construction of her narrative. The aim of my essay is to explore Drabble's last fiction The Seven Sisters, mapping Candida's fluid identity at the so-called woman's third age phase, concurrently pinning down Drabble's peculiar narrative style of utilizing various disciplines regarding mythology, intertextuality, gender and psychology.

Keywords:
Margaret Drabble; The Seven Sisters; women's third age; postmodern narrativity; intertextuality; sisterhood; death; mythology

Pages:
173–184
References

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