1. Feminist Criticism

2. A feminist critic sees 1) cultural and economic disabilities in a "patriarchal" society that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their creative possibilities 2) women's cultural identification as merely a negative object, or "Other," to man as the defining and dominating "Subject."

3. Some assumptions: Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal. The concepts of gender are largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization. This patriarchal ideology also pervades those writings that have been considered great literature.

4. Somewhat like Marxist criticism with a focus on relations between the sexes rather than the classes Concern with recovering and republishing novels of neglected female authors (w/view that the literary "canon" is skewed towards male authors)

5. Different approaches: Some feminists revisit books by male authors and look at them from a woman's P.O.V. to see how they both reflect and shape the attitudes that have held women back.

6. Different approaches: French—focus on language, which they say is phallocentric and reflects a binary logic that privileges masculinity (the phallus); forces women to adopt male language and to imagine and represent themselves as men imagine them, or retreat into silence

7. Different approaches: American—focus on analyzing literary texts; revisionist reading of the literary tradition; examine the portrayals of women, exposing the patriarchal ideology implicit in such works; also, focus on recovering literary works written by women (Their Eyes Were Watching God)

8. Gynocriticism a term coined by Elaine Showalter (b. 1941) in her essay “Towards a Feminist Poetics” means tracing "the evolution or laws of a female literary tradition” reevaluates history so that women are brought in from the margins of discourse; focuses exclusively on female authors

9. The Three Phases (Showalter) Feminine: Female writers try to copy the achievements of male writers Feminist: Female writers protest treatment of women in works by male writers in their own writing Female: Female writers reject imitation & protest in favor of self-discovery

10. Asks, Do I read to see how women are depicted in the work? Asks, Do I read to see how women are depicted in the work? Do I analyze to see if the work is patriarchal? Do I analyze to see if the work is patriarchal?