59 pages 1 hour read

Alice Hoffman

The Dovekeepers

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Essay Topics

1.

How does the novel explore the nature of familial relationships? How are different family dynamics and conceptions of motherhood depicted in the novel?

2.

The Dovekeepers is split across four different parts with four different narrators. How does the novel’s narrative structure impact the novel’s characterization and/or its exploration of key themes and ideas?

3.

Shirah observes that women traditionally do not write their knowledge “to make certain it couldn’t be found out and used against them” (402). What is the relationship between women and storytelling in the text? How does it compare to the storytelling traditions more closely associated with the men?