Feminist Literary Theory

What is Feminism? In the simplest terms, feminism is the theory that women and men should be equal politically, economically, and socially.

Feminist Issues

Gender as a Social Construction

Did you know: Pink was first a colour for BOYS Men wore heels first (red ones at that)!

Separate Spheres Public Sphere Private Sphere

Division of Labour 1930s Women

So What is Feminist Literary Theory?

Patriarchal Society

The Male Canon

Women Subordinate to Men You Tube Clip

Misogynistic View of Women

“Evil” Eve

Feminists saw that… While many male authors, such as Dickens Wordsworth, Hawthorne, and Thoreau were “canonized” very few women were seen this way

“GEORGE ELIOT” Mary Ann (Marian) Evans b.1819 – d Adam Bede, 1859 The Mill on the Floss, 1860 Silas Marner, 1861 Romola, 1863 Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866 Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, 1876

And that… Female scholars like Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beavoir were ignored

How Have Feminist Literary Critics Responded?

Changing the Canon

Gendered Communication vs the Gendered Language

Important Figures in Feminist Literary Theory

Kate Millet “However muted its present appearance may be, sexual dominion obtains nevertheless as perhaps the most pervasive ideology of our culture and provides its most fundamental concept of power.” -- Sexual Politics (1969)

Elaine Showalter Gynocriticism is a form of criticism that constructs "a female framework for the analysis of women's literature, to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt male models and theories" -- Toward a Feminist Poetics (1979)

Germaine Greer “Is it too much to ask that women be spared the daily struggle for superhuman beauty in order to offer it to the caresses of a subhumanly ugly mate?” -- The Female Eunuch (1970)

Important Feminist Novelists and Poets

Virginia Woolf Important Works  Mrs. Dalloway  To the Lighthouse  Orlando: A Biography  The Waves  Between the Acts  A Room with a View

Margaret Atwood Important Works  The Edible Woman  Surfacing  Life Before Man  The Handmaid's Tale  Cat's Eye  The Robber Bride  The Blind Assassin

Anne Sexton Important Works  To Bedlam and Part Way Back  All My Pretty Ones  Live or Die  Love Poems  Transformations  The Book of Folly  The Death Notebooks

Sylvia Plath Important Works  The Colossus  Cut  Ariel  Crossing the Water  Winter Trees  Daddy  Lady Lazarus  The Bell Jar

Important Feminist Terms

Gynocriticism

Gender vs. Sex

Essentialism

Patriarchy

Objectification

Infantilization

Subordination

Misogyny

The “Other” We create the “other” by marginalizing a group, characterizing its differences as flaws, thus making it inferior. Women have frequently been cast as the “other” throughout history.

Phallocentrism

Questions Feminist Critics Ask about Literature

Feminist Questions How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?

Feminist Questions Do the women in the work accept or reject traditional gender roles?

Feminist Questions Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about women?

Feminist Questions What are the relationships between men and women?

Feminist Questions To what extent are female figures infantilized?

Feminist Questions Does the work reinforce or undermine patriarchal ideology?

Feminist Questions How much personal freedom do women experience in this work ?

Feminist Questions To what extent is a character’s life option constrained by gender?

Feminist Questions Does the work offer the possibility of a sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?

Thanks for Paying Attention Again!