1. Feminist Criticism
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley Chisholm

2. Feminist Criticism
A type of literary criticism that critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. They focus on how femininity is represented as being passive and emotional – the “caregiver,” and the male is associated with reason and action – the “doer.”

3. Feminism and feminist criticism
The “women’s movement” of the 1960s: a renewal
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929)
The direct product of the women’s movement of the 1960s
The movement realized the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature
Not an off-shoot or a spin-off from feminism
But one of its most practical ways of influencing everyday conduct and attitudes

4. Feminism and feminist criticism
The representation of women in literature: socialization
Toril Moi’s explanation
Feminist: A political position
Female: A matter of biology
Feminine: A set of culturally defined characteristics
19th-century fiction: the focus of interest is on the heroine’s choice of marriage partner, which will decide her ultimate social position.
1970s: exposing “mechanisms of patriarchy”
The cultural “mind-set” in men and women which perpetuated sexual inequality (male writers constructed typical images of women)

5. Feminism and feminist criticism
Feminist criticism became much more eclectic (drew upon other criticism)
Attacking male versions of the world→Exploring the nature of the female world and outlook.
Female phase (1920 onwards): looked particularly at…
Three particular areas: theory, language, psychoanalysis

6. Feminist Criticism
As an addition to the feminist movement in politics, the feminist critique of literature seeks to raise the consciousness about the importance and unique nature of women in literature, and to point out how language has been used to marginalize women.

7. Feminist Criticism Specifically, the feminist view attempts to:
Show that writers of traditional literature have ignored women and have presented misguided and prejudiced views of them
Create a critical landscape that reflects a balanced view of the nature and value of women.

8. Feminist Criticism
3. Expand the literary canon by recovering works of women of the past and publication of contemporary female writers
4. Urge transformation in the language to eliminate inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic distortions such as mankind (rather than humanity).

9. Feminist Critical Questions
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?

10. Feminist Critical Questions
4.How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the presentation of men and women in the work?
5. How do other works by the author correspond to this one in their depiction of the power relationships between men and women?