Tillie Olsen Summary

Biography EssayTillie Olsen is a feminist and working-class author who began writing in the 1930s. Robert Coles commented in The Nation, "Everything Tillie Olsen has written has become almost immedi... Read more

Tillie Olsen writes about people who, because of their class, sex, or race, have been denied the opportunity to express and develop themselves. In a strongly emotional style, she tells of their dreams... Read more

Long recognized as a feminist and a working-class writer, and more recently as a Jewish writer, Tillie Olsen has rarely been considered a writer of the American West. This may be because she deals wit... Read more

Critical Essay by Catharine R. Stimpson Olsen's compelling gift is her ability to render lyrically the rhythms of consciousness of victims [in Yonnondio: From the Thirties]. Imaginative, affect... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert Coles [Tillie Olsen] is, has been for decades, a feminist—unyielding and strong-minded, but never hysterical or shrill. Her essays reveal her to be brilliant, forceful ... Read more

Critical Essay by Phoebe-lou Adams In examining the failure of various talented writers (mostly women) to produce the amount or quality of work warranted by their apparent ability, Ms. Olsen blames, i... Read more

Critical Essay by David Dillon [Silences] is a book about the relationships between literature and circumstances as well as a commentary on the mysterious workings of the creative imagination….... Read more

In the following essay, Bauer remarks on the themes of hope and despair within the mother-daughter relationship in "I Stand Here Ironing." "I stand here ironing" begins the... Read more

In the following essay, Pfaelzer discusses the ways in which Olsen uses language and silence in Tell Me a Riddle to represent Eva's journey from alienation to engagement. Logos, the expressed w... Read more

In the following review of Tell Me a Riddle, Fisher praises Olsen's efforts as a feminist writer. You won't find her in Who's Who … nor is her name going to be listed in th... Read more

In the following review, Oates contends that Silences suffers from omissions, uneven tone, and faulty logic. The highest art appears to contain an entire world in miniature: entering it, one experienc... Read more

In the following essay, Gelfant addresses the protagonist's need to find meaning and self-renewal during the Depression in Olson's short story "Requa." No one has written s... Read more

In the following essay, Lyons argues that while Judaism shapes Olsen's work, her writing is most influenced by her experiences as a woman. That Tillie Olsen's work is radically perfectib... Read more

From the beginning of time itself the battle between mother and daughter has existed. In Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing," the battle between mother and daughter is not the "norm." It's actually ... Read more