Voyager: Jenny Reading Again - More Women's Literacy

In the early chapters of Voyager, in the aftermath of Culloden, when the people of Lallybroch are coping with hunger, grief, fear and oppression,  literacy takes on a more urgent kind of significance than the one it had for Jenny in Dragonfly in Amber.   In his hermit-like exile, Jamie depends on books, and Claire's medical training is not only book-based, but occasions her own use of books for coping.  Meanwhile, in her own, practical way, Jamie's sister Jenny also depends on books to cope with hardship--and not French novels and poetry this time (see here and here for Jenny reading in Dragonfly).

So it happens that, coming into the house with freshly killed rabbits, Jamie finds Jenny with a book that seems, to him, superfluous:

“Cut them into collops and break the bones for me, will ye, Jamie?” she said, frowning at Mrs. McClintock’s Receipts for Cookery and Pastry-Work, laid open on the table beside the pie pan.
     “Surely ye can make hare pie without looking in the wee book?” he said, obligingly taking the big bone-crushing wooden mallet from the top of the hutch where it was kept. He grimaced as he took it into his hand, feeling the weight of it. It was very like the one that had broken his right hand several years before, in an English prison, and he had a sudden vivid memory of the shattered bones in a hare pie, splintered and cracked, leaking salty blood and marrow-sweetness into the meat.
     “Aye, I can,” his sister answered abstractedly, thumbing through the pages. “It’s only that when ye havena got half the things ye need to make a dish, sometimes there’s something else you’ll come across in here, that ye can use instead.” (61-62)

This is an interesting moment, because it shows a book--a codex--that is not used for pleasure or propaganda.  Rather than providing spiritual nourishment (as Bibles are mentioned occasionally, though in Outlander mainly as an object signifying need for vengeance against Jack Randall), this book provides for physical nourishment.

This literacy moment is also interesting because it is another instance of gendered reading.  When Claire reads, it is without the same kind of gender marker as Jenny, simply because she is a different kind of woman than Jenny.  Claire, while marked by motherhood, can't really be called "domestic"--much to the chagrin of Frank.  Jenny's reading--in this and the other instance, in Dragonfly--is gendered, domestic reading.  By this I mean that in the narrative, it is specifically tied to her duties as the matriarch of the household, providing food and clothing and otherwise caring for her children and her men.  Beyond just the fact of being gendered and domestic, this women's reading is thrifty and useful.  She reads for reference, which is not common in the novels--even when Claire refers to reading medical texts, the emphasis is on the fact that she and her colleague are not reading professional materials.  She also reads as a matter of resourcefulness.  It is a hands-on, practical means of coping, showing that not all reading in the Outlander books is pie-in-the sky, escapist sort of stuff.  In fact, the uses of literacy are quite diverse (even if individual, intellectual uses of literacy are privileged).

Gabaldon, Diana (2004-10-26). Voyager (Outlander) Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.