Abstract

Alice Cooper once said that "only women bleed," but according to Dana Medoro, so do many of the canonical texts of American literature. And much as women and men in general have been taught to shun mention of the monthly "curse," male and female critics alike have largely avoided any discussion of the importance of menstruation in these works, despite their authors' best intentions: "Stanley Koteks" is hardly a subtle moniker, after all. But little of the previous criticism on Pynchon, Faulkner and Morrison investigates the paradigm, or indeed identifies it as one, even though, Medoro convincingly argues in The Bleeding of America, an entire parallel universe in these authors' novels revolves around the female body, the moon and menses, and offers an alternative to the masculine culture of separation, aggression and murder that each of these socially conscious authors indicts.

How to Cite:

York Blaine, D., (2002) “Seeing Red: The Female Body and Periodic Renewal”, Pynchon Notes , 154-157. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.79