Post- world War II, Victorian Female, and Romantic Period Female Literature Comparison of Language

Explanation of Changes

The stylistic differences between the syntax and lexicon of men and women extends even beyond written communication. In other applications of communication the same rift exists. In computer programming and coding, women are believed to write code that is more user-friendly, containing comments that explain how to use it, and easy to understand variables, while code written by men tends to be cryptic and obscure. Emma McGrattan, a programmer located in Silicon Valley, says she can accurately determine whether code was written by a man or a woman just by looking at it.^[18]
Women's code may be different than men's, but that does not make it feminist by nature. Feminist code does exist, mainly through the lens of its purpose. The online programming projects WWO and the Orlando project were feminist archive projects meant to collect the works of women throughout history. Women's styles of writing have blended into the digital coding world, and emerged as feminist practices. Jacqueline Wernimont says of the archives, "Digital archives unite two historically gendered fields — computer and archival sciences. Literary scholars who depend on archival or rare book materials still confront, whether they acknowledge it or not, the legacy of an institutional form through which patriarchal power exercised the authority to determine value, classification and access. "Because men and their ways of addressing literature have been in charge for so long, women have to sort it through the digital archive, which is most important in a feminist sense. The styles of men's writing influence how they have viewed literature as the authority in the field, but women have become more relevant, their styles and strategies of writing have come into the light
The evolution of literature reveals many changes. The great works of the past serve as models for newer generations to learn from and build upon. Language may be the most noticeable change in modern and post-modern literature. For generations writers have used realistic language to appeal to readers and convey mood and meaning. Because language changes in society, diction in literature representing realism changes as well. Female writers reveal the changes in their writing, but they also faced specific difficulties that male writers did not. In the Romantic and Victorian periods women were not widely recognized as intellectuals or appreciated as strong writers. Historical review of these works reveals the gender issues of the past and how the works of female writers are as extraordinary as their male counterparts. Mary Wollstonecraft realized this discrimination and wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in response to this issue with the hope of initiating change. Emily Bronte’s life fit into the social expectations of females during the Victorian period, quiet, close to family, and working in education. Despite her outward appearance of submissive perfection Bronte’s work reveal a strong, intelligent woman who recognized social positions as well as anyone, and perhaps better. These female authors paved the way for future generations. Writers like Alice Munro and Anne Carson are accepted as exceptional writers today partially because of early women advancing the feminist movement. Carson pays homage to Emily Bronte and her sister Charlotte in her poem “The Glass Essay.” Even though literature has changed, language is more realistic, imagery is more graphic, and subjects are bolder, the female writers of today represent the grand writing tradition started by their Romantic and Victorian English sisters.