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Feminism Notes

Feminism began in the 1960s with a renewal of thinking about women's inequality in society. Writers like Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and Simone de Beauvoir diagnosed the problem and aimed to correct the portrayal and representation of women in literature. In the 1970s, feminist criticism gave critical attention to books by male authors that influenced typical images of women. The feminist movement of the 1970s was combative in exposing the mechanisms of patriarchy. In the 1980s, feminist criticism became more diverse and changed its focus from attacking male versions of the world to exploring female experiences and reconstructing lost records of female experience. Elaine Showalter described the shift from studying male texts to female texts and identified three

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85 views3 pages

Feminism Notes

Feminism began in the 1960s with a renewal of thinking about women's inequality in society. Writers like Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and Simone de Beauvoir diagnosed the problem and aimed to correct the portrayal and representation of women in literature. In the 1970s, feminist criticism gave critical attention to books by male authors that influenced typical images of women. The feminist movement of the 1970s was combative in exposing the mechanisms of patriarchy. In the 1980s, feminist criticism became more diverse and changed its focus from attacking male versions of the world to exploring female experiences and reconstructing lost records of female experience. Elaine Showalter described the shift from studying male texts to female texts and identified three

Uploaded by

Jyotirish Biswas
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Feminism

60s

 Start or feminism
 Renewal of an old tradition of thought
 Diagnosed the problem, of women’s inequality in society
 Aim – correct/criticism the portal and representation of women in literature.
o Mary Wollstonecraft’s - “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”
 Discusses male writers
o Olive schreiner’s - “Women and Labor”
o Virginia Woolf’s - “A Room of One’s Own”
 Portrays unequal treatment
o Simone de Beauvoir’s - “The Second Sex”
 Male contributors –
o John Stuart Mill – The Subjugation of Women
 Fought against legal and social equality
o Friedrich Engels – The Origin of the Family
 Family structure is oppressive, religion = bad
 Product of the ‘Woman’s movement’ of 1960s
o Realized the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature
o Realized it was vital to combat them and question their authority and their
coherence
o Woman’s movement concerned wit books and literature
o Feminist criticism should not be seen as a spin-off of feminism
o Its most practical ways of influencing everyday conduct and attitude
 Toril Moi
o Feminist – political position
o Female – a matter of biology
o Feminine – lies much of the force of feminism
 Representation of women in literature = most imp forms of socialization.
o Provide role model
o Constituted acceptable versions of the ‘feminine’ and feminine goals and aspirations
 Feminists pointed out (19th cent lit) – very few women work unless desperation, focus on the
heroin’s choice of marriage partner, which decides social position = happiness and
fulfillment in life
 Against 3 things
o Articulation of female gender roles ascribed through socialization
o Women should be conformed to a domestic space, married off
o Acceptable versions of feminism.
o People saw feminists as those who did not conform and were out to
destroy/castrate the concept of Man
70s

 Major events went into exposing what might be called the mechanisms of patriarchy
(cultural mind-set in men and women which perpetuate sexual inequality)
o Patriarchy = one kind of individual can hold power – masculine
 Critical attention given for books by male author in which influential or typical images of
women were portrayed.
 Feminist movement in the 70s was combative, vigilant and outspoken.

80s

 Feminist criticism became more eclectic (diverse)


 Influenced by Marx, structuralism, linguistics
 Changed focus from attacking male versions of the world to exploring the nature of female
world and outlook
 Reconstructing lost/suppressed records of female experience
 Priorities woman’s experience over patriarchy
 Attention was switched to the need to construct a new cannon of woman’s writing by
rewriting the history of the novel and poetry in such a manner that neglected women were
given new prominence.
 This dynamic nature is seen as a characteristics of feminist criticism

Elaine Showaiter

 Describe shift of attention from andro-texts to gyno-texts


 Coined gynocritics – study of gyno-texts which according to her are
o History, style, themes, genres and structures of writing
o Psychodynamics of female creativity
o Trajectory of individual or collective female career
o Evolution of a female literary tradition
 Three phases in the history of woman’s writing
o Feminine phase (1840-80) – women writers imitated dominant male norms and
aesthetic standards
o Feminist phase (1880-1920) – radical and separatist position
o Female phase (1920 - ) – looked at female writing and female experiences
 Three diff position bt women
o How language is important to gender
o Significance and psychoanalysis
o Role of theory
 Feminist criticism required terminology to attain theoretical respectability
The Role of Theory

 Feminist criticism has concerned disagreements about the amount and type of theory that
should feature in it
 Anglo-American feminism more skeptical about recent critical theory and are more cautious
abt using them
 French feminists adopted and adapted a great deal of post-structuralist and psychoanalytic
criticism as the basis of much of their work

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