86.21a

“Pen Men.” Review-essay by Elaine Showalter. London Review of Books, 20 March, 8–9. Showalter opens her review of three books on feminism-masculism by quoting Mailer’s comments about the number of women delegates at the PEN Congress: “There are countries in the world where there are no good women writers.” Mailer tried to explain that he was referring to autocratic countries such as Saudi Arabia, but he was immediately pilloried for sexism. Showalter says Mailer is “an extreme manifestation” of the way many males in the late 20th century “define themselves as artists through a sexual dialectic, creating masculine modes of speaking and writing.” See 85.1, 85.2, 85.6, 85.8, 85.9 and 1986 entries.