"A Thousand Acres"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the similarities and significant differences between Jane Smiley's novel "A Thousand Acres" and Shakespeare's original "King Lear". The paper illustrates how "A Thousand Acres" is a feminist re-vision of the Lear tragedy where the patriarchal myth is best grounded. The paper shows how, by giving voice to the women seen as vile in Shakespeare's text, Smiley manages to shed a new light on the traditional story and make it more compatible with modern consciousness.

From the Paper:

"Thus, Jane Smiley's re-vision of King Lear works as a displacement of traditional patriarchy: the author demits Lear from his role as a patriarchal figure, persecuted and betrayed by his ungrateful daughters. The main characters in A Thousand Acres, as well as the main directions in the plot, are all mirroring the Shakespearian tragedy: the prosperous farmer in Iowa - Larry Cook/ Lear decides, on an impulse, to renounce the absolute rights on his property, and to divide the family land among his three daughters: Ginny/ Goneril, Rose/ Regan and Caroline/ Cordelia. The names of the characters themselves are plain allusions to the main characters in Shakespeare's text."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aquiar, Sarah Appleton. The Bitch is Back: Wicked Women in Literature. Illinois: Illinois University Press, 2001
• Arnold, Gary. Bitterness, Incest Make Life on Acres Nasty. The Washington Times, Sept. 19, 1997
• Colonque, William and Jack Temple Kirby. Working in the Garden: American Writers and the Industrialization of Agriculture. Caroline: University of South Carolina Press, 2001
• Desmet, Christy, and Robert Sawyer. Shakespeare and Appropriation. London: Routledge, 1999
• Schiff, James A. "Contemporary Retellings: A Thousand Acres as the Latest Lear." Critique. 39, 1998

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