Historical Fiction

[BSAllen <BSAllen@AOL.COM>]

I've been following this thread with great interest.  Yesterday, Maureen Irwin
said
"However, the author did raise an
excellent point, and I found myself questioning the behavior of Mozart's
wife in Amadeus over the weekend.  She bullied her father-in-law, and
took Mozart's original compositions to Salieri for him to evaluate without
her husband's knowledge.  My college-age daughter and I agreed neither of
these were likely to have been possible."
I presented this to my college age son and he brought up Joan of Arc.  The
question of how people thought and how less than famous people acted in the
past has been presented to us through the predominately male eyes of the time.
I don't think we can make assumptions about how less than famous women thought
and acted.  When I was a small child and had just been to the local historical
society and seen an incredible side saddle, I was talking to a very old woman
who had lived in the west all of her life.  I said something about how
difficult it must have been to ride sidesaddle and always wear a skirt.  Her
response was something like
"Nonsense.  Real women rode astride wearing pants.  Don't believe everything
they tell you at the historical society."

Barbara Allen
Program Analyst / Library Services
Tucson Unified School District
Tucson, AZ
bsallen@aol.com

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