Talkin' New York

Abstract

This thesis deals with aspects of femininty and masculinity in Greenwich Villages folk music movement during it's heyday in the 1960s. The purpouse of the study is to challenge the common image of the folknik movement as progressive by showing that women was marginalized. By analyzing autobiographies in the light of Michail Bachtins ideas about dialogical text a general picture emerges that shows that women didn't have the same status as men in the movement. As a matter of fact women where looked upon as less authentic than men, and their main function was to serve them, especially if they where romantically involved. Authenticity was a word of honor and hence women where often looked down upon. The subjects for this study is following; autobiographies by the musicians Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Mary Travers and the artist Suze Rotolo.