Talk of the Town

The Meaning Of Wife

Mon. Mar. 8, 7:30-9:00 pm

Special Location: Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch

With: Anne Kingston, Journalist and Author

Here is how author Anne Kingston opens the first chapter in her new book The Meaning of Wife:

"Wife. Four letters. One syllable. Simple, or so it seems. Yet this common word has become one of the most complex signifiers in the English language, weighted by past definitions, blurred by personal biases. The associations it elicits are bipolar in their scope: by the beginning of the twenty-first century, wife was variously presented as the source of female damnation or salvation, enchantment or disenchantment, captivity or rescue. Take your pick. Evidence can be marshalled to support either case. But the truth exists in neither."

Once upon a time, women entered marriage for a variety of reasons: for economic support, to forge family alliances, to conform to the practice of their peers. Only in recent times has the concept of marrying for love and companionship been introduced into the equation. And now many women are deciding they can do without marriage altogether. A 1995 survey by Statistics Canada reports that only a half of 30-year-old Canadian women and barely one-third of 20-year-olds chose marriage as their first conjugal relationship. Even the wish to have children, once a very powerful motivation for getting married, is no longer encouraging people to marry. It is estimated that perhaps as many as 40% of all children born in Canada, are born to parents who are not married.

In The Meaning of Wife Anne Kingston argues that we must find a new understanding of wife. "To see the wife fully through a multi-faceted lens is one of the central challenges facing society in the twenty-first century. To do this new scripts are required that employ wife as a verb and as a gender-neutral concept.... For better or for worse, the new meaning of wife will provide a new axis, a pivot around which we can arrive at a new understanding of what it means not only to be a wife, but to be a woman, to be a man, to be human."

On March 8th, International Women’s Day, join the discussion with Anne Kingston as we explore the conundrum of the modern marriage.

The discussion will take place at the Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604-822-1700.

You can get more information about The Meaning of Wife at the HarperCollins Canada web site.

About The Author

Anne Kingston is a regular columnist for the National Post, well known for her commentary on cultural and social issues. Her book, The Edible Man: Dave Nichol, Presidents Choice and the Making of Popular Taste, won the 1995 National Business Book Award. She has also received a National Magazine Award for Arts writing in Saturday Night magazine, for which she is a regular contributor.

Bibliography

• The Meaning of Wife, HarperCollins, 2004.
• The Edible Man: Dave Nicol, President’s Choice and the Making of Popular Taste, Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, 1994.

Links & Readings

Links

Anne Kingston Writes

A column by Anne Kingston on the people who went to Iraq to act as 'human shields' before the war.

The History of the Wife

The web site of the NPR program Connections, with a one-hour discussion on the institution of marriage.

Women and the Common Life

A review of Christopher Lasch’s last book of essays, from the New York Times.

Public Vows

A review of the Public Vows by Nancy Cott, a book that is a comprehensive examination of the role of marriage as a public institution.

Readings

A History of the Wife, Marilyn Yalom, HarperCollins, 2001

Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation, Nancy Cott, Harvard University Press, 2000

Women and the Common Life: Love, Marriage, and Feminism, Christopher Lasch (edited by Elisabeth Lasch- Quinn), Norton, 1997

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages, Phyllis Rose, Knopf, 1984