"The dying summer": Menopause in Light in August

Contextualizing the representation of Joanna Burden's menopause in Light in August with discourses of menopause in the early twentieth century reveals the ways that the novel reinforces and subverts traditional views of women. In the mid-19th century, menopause was seen as a crisis when women, especially childless women, were prone to severe physiological and psychological disturbances. By the 1930s, most doctors were downplaying the alleged pathologies of menopause and recommending reassurance as the primary treatment. The depiction of Joanna's menopause replicates the anachronistic crisis view of menopause and reflects the misogyny of the unreliable external narrator. The cultural persistence of the crisis view of menopause suggests that it reinforces traditional roles for women, a hierarchically organized economy, and the war against a threatening nature. Teaching the novel in context with more positive views of menopause demonstrates the ways that women's bodies have been constructed.