1. { Feminist Criticism WEEK 9

2.  Feminist: a political position  Female: a matter of biology  Feminine: a set of culturally defined characteristics Toril Moi – The Feminist Reader Key terms

3.  “Women’s Movement” (1960s)  Mary Wollstonecraft – A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)  Olive Schreiner – Women and Labour (1911)  Virginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own (1929)  John Stuart Mill – The Subjection of Woman (1869)  Friedrich Engels – The Origin of the Family (1884) Feminist Criticism

4. Feminism:  Women’s inequality in society + proposed solutions Feminist criticism:  The images of women depicted by literature  Question and combat those images of women  Representation of role models in the literature  In 19 th century fiction woman figures are portrayed as being inferior to the men. Their social positions, happiness and fulfillment in life are determined by men. Concerns:

5.  In 1970s, major effort was exposing patriarchy. Typical sexist images in literature were criticized in a combative and polemical way.  In 1980s, feminism became more eclectic (Marxisim, structuralism, linguistics).  Its focus changed from attacking male versions of the world to exploring the nature of the female world and outlook.  Its attention switched to the need to construct a new canon of women’s writing. Efforts…

6.  The change in 1970s was described as a shift from “andro- texts” to “gynotexts”.  Gynocritics is the study of gynotexts.  History, styles, themes, genres, structures of women writing, psychodynamics of female creativity, trajectory of individual or collective female career and evolution of female literary tradition are the subjects of gynocriticism. Gynocritism

7.  French feminists adopted mainly post-structuralist and psychoanalytic criticism.  Anglo-Americans are more interested in traditional concepts like theme, motif, and characterisation. – Literary realism + close reading of the individual texts  English feminist criticism tends to be social feminist in orientation – cultural materialism and Marxism Feminist criticism - variations

8.  A form of feminine language?  Woolf says language is gendered. There is no common sentence ready for her use.  Austen rejects.  “Ecriture feminine” – a transgressive, rule-transcending, intoxicated female language (by Cixous) Feminist criticism & language

9.  Kate Millet – condemns Freud as being the prime source of patriarchy  Juliet Mitchell – defends Freud by presenting the distinctions between sex-gender. She thinks Freud doesn’t present the “feminine” as something given and natural. Sexual identities are social constructs.  “Social castration”: women’s lack of social power  Lacan presented men as powerless and also embodied “feminine or semiotic” aspect of language. Feminist Criticism & Psychoanalysis

10.  To what extent does the representation of women (and men) in the work reflect the time and place in which the work was written?  How are the relationships between men and women presented in the work?  Does the author present the work from within a predominantly male or female perspective?  How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the presentation of men and women in the work?  How do other works by the author correspond to this one in their depiction of the power relationships between men and women? Feminist Critical Questions

11.  Aim at the rediscovery of texts written by women and revalue women’s experience.  Examine representations of women (both by men and women).  Challenge sexist representations of women as “other” or “lack”.  Examine power relations – patriarchy  Recognise the role of language in making the socially constructed seem natural.  Ask whether the genders are essentially different or socially constructed.  Ask whether there is a female language – ecriture feminine  Combine psychoanalysis and feminist view to explore identities.  Question whether the subjects’ positions or the experience is central. – “the author is dead” argument Feminist critics…