Gloria Feman Orenstein (born 1938 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

) is a feminist art critic, pioneer in the field of the women of Surrealism and scholar of ecofeminism in the arts. Orenstein's ''Reweaving the World'' is considered a seminal ecofeminist text which has had "a crucial role in the development of U.S. ecofeminism as a political position".

Biography

Orenstein received a B.A. in Romance Languages and Literature from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

in 1959 and an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literature from Radcliffe Graduate School of Harvard University in 1961. She studied in abroad in 1957 and 1958 completing courses at both the Sorbonne, University of Paris and Ecole du Louvre. Orenstein began her teaching career in 1963, when she accepted a position teaching High school French in Lexington, MA. She returned to

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

to continue her education, completing a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1971. From 1975 to 1981 she was faculty of

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

where she also served as the chair of the Women's Studies Program from 1976 to 1978. She was hired as Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Gender Studies at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

in 1981 where she taught until she retired. She is a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of the University of Southern California. Orenstein was the apprentice of the

Shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

of Samiland. Orenstein received a

Lifetime Achievement award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...

from the

Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...

in February 2018 in Los Angeles, CA.

Work

Orenstein's early work focuses on the women of Surrealism. Her first book ''The Theater of the Marvelous: Surrealism and The Contemporary Stage'' (1975) established her as a pioneer of the field.

Important writings

''Reweaving the World''

''Reweaving the World'', co-edited by Orenstein and Irene Diamond, posits an ecofeminist movement that brings together “the environmental, feminist, and women’s spirituality movements out of a shared concern for the well-being of the Earth and all forms of life that our Earth supports.”Diamond, Irene and Gloria Feman Orenstein, Ed
''Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism''
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. Retrieved March 3, 2018. In the book, Orenstein described “’ecofeminist arts’ function sceremonially to connect us with the two powerful worlds from which the Enlightenment severed us—nature and the spirit world.”Orenstein, Gloria Feman. “Artists as Healers: Envisioning Life-Giving Culture,” In ''Reweaving the World'', Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, Ed., San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990, p. 279. She suggested such arts often invoked the symbol of the Great Mother (Goddess) to emphasize three levels of creation “imaged as female outside patriarchy: cosmic creation, procreation, and artistic creation.” Orenstein explored the work of artists, poets and authors such as Helène Aylon, Ellen Marit Gaup Dunfjeld,

Ursula Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

Rachel Rosenthal Rachel Rosenthal (November 9, 1926 – May 10, 2015) was a French-born interdisciplinary and performance artist, teacher, actress, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles. She was best known for her full-length performance art pieces whi ...

, Fern Shaffer, Vijali Hamilton, and

Mierle Laderman Ukeles Mierle Laderman Ukeles (born 1939) is a New York City-based artist known for her feminist and service-oriented artworks, which relate the idea of process in conceptual art to domestic and civic "maintenance". She has been the Artist-in-Residence ...

, who used ritual, ceremony, performance and writing to enact transformation, reconnection and restoration of harmony.

''The Reflowering of the Goddess''

Orenstein calls for a reorganization of civilization based on the return to Goddess focused culture. She makes a radical

ecofeminist Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in h ...

argument which "considers the return of the Goddess as a sign of the return to an attitude of reverence for the Earth...and of an ecological as well as a non-sexist consciousness" detailing a plan of action which relies less on a Utopian model than on the creative works of

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (th ...

and

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

artists of the era. For her, storytelling is the key to transforming the cosmic mythos, and works created out of "the artistic culture inaugurated by the contemporary women's movement", reveal an already extant body of "feminist

matristic Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property. While those definitions apply in general E ...

" mythology providing a path to a new mythic paradigm that will save the planet.

''The theater of the marvelous: Surrealism and the contemporary stage''

Orenstein joins the formerly disparate

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and surrealism in articulating her conception of ''The Theater of the Marvelous''. She works to differentiate a neosurrealist theatre from the

Dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

Theater of the Absurd The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style o ...

, out of which it grew, exploring a transnational collection of playwrights including:

Elena Garro Elena Garro (December 11, 1916 – August 22, 1998) was a Mexican screenwriter, journalist, dramaturg, short story writer, and novelist. She has been described as the initiator of the Magical Realism movement, though she rejected this affiliation. ...

, Teofilo Cid,

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

Robert Benayoun Robert Benayoun (12 December 1926 in Kenitra, Morocco – 20 October 1996, Paris) was a French film critic and author, and one-time member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival of 1980. He wrote books on Tex Avery, Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, the ...

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...

and

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of ...

to combat the tendency to view affiliation with the Bretonist school as the main criteria in defining a work as

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

. Instead the

oneiric Oneiric most commonly refers to: * Dreams, during sleep * Oneirology, the science of dreams Oneiric may also refer to: * Oneiric (film theory), dreams as a metaphor for film—or in critiques thereof * ''Oneiric'' (album), 2006, by Boxcutter * ' ...

vision, the invocation of a dream world, the breaking down of reality to reveal interior imaginative truths, becomes the defining criteria. Orenstein seeks to convince the reader that these works have transcended the traditional goal of theater, to conjure a convincing likeness of the real; that they possess the power to effect inner change, transformative consciousness expansion, in the spectator.

Critiques of writings

Orenstein's ''Reweaving the World'' has received criticism for

gender essentialism Gender essentialism is a theory that is used to examine the attribution of distinct, fixed, intrinsic qualities to women and men. In this theory, based in essentialism, there are certain universal, innate, biologically or psychologically based fea ...

Selected bibliography

Orenstein has authored and edited several books. Her articles have been published in art and literary journals and translated into many languages.

Books

* ''Multi-Cultural Celebrations: The Paintings of Betty Laduke 1972-1992'' (Pomegranate Books, 1993) * ''Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism'' (Sierra Club Books, 1990) * ''The Reflowering of the Goddess'' (Pergamon Press, 1990) * ''The Theater of the Marvelous''

Book chapters

Articles

* ''Torah Study, Feminism and Spiritual Quest in the Work of Five American Jewish Women Artists'' ''in Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues''. No.14(Fall 2007). pp. 97–130 * ''The Greening of Gaia: Ecofeminist Artists Revisit the Garden'' in ''Ethics and the Environment''. Vol. 8, No. 1,(Spring, 2003), pp. 102–111 * ''The "Problematics" of Writing about Sacred Ritual and the Spiritual Journey'' in ''Women's Studies Quarterly''. Vol.21 (Spr/Sum 1993). * ''The Salon of Natalie Clifford Barney: Interview with Berthe Cleyrergue'' in ''Signs''. Vol. 4, No. 3 (Spring 1979). * ''Reemergence of the Archetype of the Great Goddess in Art by Contemporary Women'' in ''Heresies''. Vol.2, No.2 (Spring 1978), pp. 74–85 * ''Review Essay: Art History'' in ''Signs''. Vol. 1, No.2 (Winter 1975). * ''Art History and the Case for the Women of Surrealism'' in ''The Journal of General Education''. Vol. 27, No. 1 (Spring 1975), pp. 31–54 * ''Women of Surrealism'' in ''The Feminist Art Journal''. (Spring 1973), pp. 15–21

References

External links

*201
Interview of Gloria OrensteinGloria Feman Orenstein Papers.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Orenstein, Gloria Feman 1938 births Living people Brandeis University alumni Radcliffe College alumni New York University alumni American art historians Women art historians American feminist writers Ecofeminists