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Question 7: Commentaries on "The Blank Page?"

Q. I am a student of literature and I am interested in feminist criticism. I have come across some commentaries on "The Blank Page" included in Last Tales and I would like to read more.

A. Thank you for your question about one of Isak Dinesen's finest stories. You probably read Susan Gubar's "'The Blank Page' and the Issues of Female Creativity" in Isak Dinesen: Critical Views. There's nothing online about "The Blank Page" but two further resources are Robert Langbaum's Isak Dinesen's Art: The Gayety of Vision and (two excellent articles) in Isak Dinesen and Narrativity edited by Gurli Woods.

The fascinating part of the story is its ambiguity; the reader must decide why the women stand looking at the blank portrait longer than the others. Some have interpreted this to mean that the woman who does not allow the man to create from her body is more admired. I myself do not think Isak Dinesen was a feminist, but she was intrigued by the dual possibility that the woman a.)did not cooperate or b.) was not a virgin.

If she was not a virgin, then the old spinsters may be wistful about what they missed.

Any interpretation involves the realization that a greater work of art is created when the interpreter (reader) is drawn into the story, forced to think about possibilities, instead of being delivered a predetermined conclusion.