Why do I look so ridiculous? Please write for 5 minutes—don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or developing one coherent thought. Please write freely. Think carefully about the question. Perhaps consider carefully what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. How do we learn to become the gender we are? How does that create or inform our identities? How do these questions inform the question at the top of the page?

From 1922 From www.pinkisforboys.org

From www.pinkisforboys.org

Feminist Literary Theory

Feminist criticism "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). Looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal and "...this critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women" (Richter 1346). Examines how the text presents women’s roles, sensibilities, and identity.

Lisa Tuttle Feminist theory asks "new questions of old texts." Goals of feminist criticism: to develop and uncover a female tradition of writing, to interpret symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style.

20th century feminist pioneers Simone de Beauvoir The female “self” is constructed in literature by male authors to embody various male fears and anxieties. The Second Sex (1949) Woman is constructed differently by men. Men write about women to find out more about men. Man defines the human, not woman. Betty Friedan Demystified dominant image of happy American suburban housewife and mother. The Feminine Mystique (1963) Literature is a record of male dominance Male writers distort women by associating them with (male) deviance. The “interior colonization” of women by men is “sturdier than any form of segregation.”

Elaine Showalter Three phases of modern women’s literary development: Feminine phase (1840-80) Women writers imitated the dominant male tradition Feminist phase (1880-1920) Women advocated for their rights. Female phase (four models) (1920-present) Biological: the text mirrors the body. Female imagery, metaphors, symbols in text. Linguistic: women speaking men's language as a foreign tongue. Women must use their own language, for if women continue to speak as men do when they enter discourse, whatever they say will be subdued and alienated. Psychoanalytic: Analyzes the female psyche and demonstrates how such an analysis affects the writing process, emphasizing the flux and fluidity of female writing as opposed to male writing's rigidity and structure. Cultural: the female psyche as a construction of cultural forces acknowledges class, racial, national and historical traits.

Essentialist Feminist Theory Elaine Showalter Inherent feminine traits From biology, language, or psychology, traits that have been undervalued, misunderstood, or exploited by a patriarchal culture. Focus on sexual differences and sexual politics. Aimed at defining/ establishing feminist literary canon Re interpreting and re-visioning literature from a less patriarchal slant.

Constructivist Feminist Theory In opposition to Essentialism. Female traits are culturally and socially constructed. The feminine and gender itself are made by culture in history and are not eternal norms. Traces the complex social and personal forces that give shape to female identity. Includes race, class, sexuality, age, and culture

Questions of Feminist Literary Analysis How is the relationship between men and women portrayed? What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)? How are male and female roles defined? What constitutes masculinity and femininity? How do characters embody these traits? Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this change others’ reactions to them? What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy? What does the work say about women's creativity? What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy? What role the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary tradition? (Tyson)

Titles of Feminist Articles “Men, Women, and the Loss of Faith in ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” “Women and ‘Sivilization’ in Huckleberry Finn.”

Tasks Look for 2 passages and analyze through each of the following feminist lenses: Showalter’s phases Essentialism Constructivism I will walk around, noting when you are speaking or acting relevantly about the topic. Feel free to use your devices to look further into the feminist theorists I introduced. 20 points

Feminist Interpretations in Action Curley’s Wife in Of Mice and Men Traditional statement: “She is a lonely girl who relied on flirting because she had no other access to self-worth.” Feminist statement: “She’s a repressed woman who is trapped by society’s expectations of what a wife and mother should be.” Daisy in The Great Gatsby Traditional statement: “She was a ‘beautiful little fool’ who depended on her husband to take care of her. Feminist statement: “Her husband took control of her and wouldn’t let her think for herself. She was doing her best within the limits of women’s role in her society.”

Elaine Showalter Gynocriticism 3 major aspects The examination of female writers and their place in literary history. The consideration of the treatment of female characters in books by both male and female writers. The discovery and exploration of a canon of literature written by women; gynocriticism seeks to appropriate a female literary tradition. The "woman is producer of textual meaning" including "the psychodynamics of female creativity; linguistics and the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career and literary history."

Socialist Feminism Connects the oppression of women to Marxist ideas about exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists think unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere holds women down. Prostitution, domestic work, childcare and marriage are ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system that devalues women and the substantial work they do.

The Madwoman Thesis Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), Refers to Bertha Jenkins of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Rochester's mad wife hidden away in the attic of Thornfield Hall. Gilbert and Gubar suggest that because society forbade women from expressing themselves through creative outlets, their creative powers were channeled into psychologically self-destructive behavior and subversive actions.