Feminist Literary Theory

MAE ENG 6311 FALL 2011

Feminism

The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.

Feminist Criticism

Examines ways in which literature reinforces or undermines the oppression of women.

Economically Socially Politically Psychologically

Traditional Gender Roles

Patriarchy

Any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles.

Traditional Gender Roles

Men Rational

Strong Protective Decisive

Women Emotional (irrational) Weak Nurturing Submissive

Traditional gender roles have been used successfully to justify inequities such as excluding women from equal access to leadership and decision-making positions and paying men higher wages than women for doing the same job.

Patriarchy is by definition sexist

It promotes the belief that women are innately inferior to men head of the tribe or family

 Biological

Essentialism

Belief of inborn inferiority based on biological differences between the sexes that are part of our unchanging essence as men and women
Example:

hysteria

Feminists dont deny biological differences

dont agree that differences in physical size, shape, and body chemistry make men naturally superior to women
more intelligent more logical better leaders

SEX: biological constitution as female or male

GENDER: our cultural programming as feminine or masculine

The inferior position long occupied by women in a patriarchal society has been culturally, not biologically, produced.

Patriarchy continually exerts forces that undermine womens self-confidence and assertiveness, then points to the absence of these qualities as proof that women are naturally self-effacing and submissive.

Example: girls and math

Patriarchal gender roles are destructive for men as well as women.

Traditional gender roles dictate that men are supposed to be strong:

Physically powerful Emotionally stoic

Men are not supposed to cry (considered a sign of weakness) Unmanly to show fear or pain Shouldnt express sympathy for other men

In a patriarchy, everything that concerns men usually implies something (usually negative) about women.

All behaviors forbidden to men are considered womanish (inferior, beneath dignity of manhood)

Men/boys who cry labeled as sissies (cowardly, feminine)

One of the most devastating verbal attacks for a man to be subjected to is to be compared to a woman.

REAL MAN requires that one hold feminine qualities in contempt

Homosexuality is included in list of feminine behaviors

American stereotype of typical male homosexual is effeminate (extremely feminine characteristics)

Whenever a patriarchy wants to undermine a behavior, it portrays that behavior as feminine.

Arguments Against Feminist Premises

Western society has actually been structured to protect women from the brutalities of war and commerce, allowing them to be nurturers, mothers, and homemakers. Rather than exploiting or suppressing women, it actually celebrates and cherishes them.

Counter Argument by Feminists

Assumes suppression and exclusion.

If a woman is put on a pedestal, she cant do much of anything up there.

Assumes women are weaker sex, needing protection. Assumes women are unable to compete with men.

Disallows for the fact that some women are physically and mentally stronger than some men.

Roots of Feminism

Men have oppressed women.

allowing them little or no voice in the political, social, or economic issues of their society

Roots of Feminism

By not giving voice and value to womens opinions, responses, and writings, men have therefore suppressed the female, defined what it means to be feminine, and thereby devoiced, devalued, and trivialized what it means to be a woman; and

Roots of Feminism

Men have made women the nonsignificant Other.

Goal of Feminism

Therefore, feminisms goal is to change these degrading views of women so that all women will realize they are not a nonsignificant Other and will realize that each woman is a valuable person possessing the same privileges and rights as every man.

Roots of Feminism
Women must define themselves and assert their own voices in the arenas of politics, society, education, and the arts. By personally committing themselves to fostering such change, feminists hope to create a society in which not only the male but also the female voice is equally valued.

Historical Roots of Feminism

According to feminist criticism, the roots of prejudice against women have long been embedded in Western culture.

Some say it originated with biblical narrative where the fall of man is blamed on Eve, not Adam.

Historical Roots of Feminism

According to feminist criticism, the roots of prejudice against women have long been embedded in Western culture.

Ancient Greeks (Aristotle) The man is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules and the other is ruled.

Roots of Feminism

According to feminist criticism, the roots of prejudice against women have long been embedded in Western culture.

Religious leaders: Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine

women were merely imperfect men Spiritually weak creatures Possessed a sensual nature that lures men away from spiritual truths, thereby preventing males from attaining their spiritual potential.

Roots of Feminism

According to feminist criticism, the roots of prejudice against women have long been embedded in Western culture.

Darwin (The Descent of Man 1871)

women are of a characteristic of a past and lower state of civilization. Are inferior to men, who are physically, intellectually, and artistically superior

Roots of Feminism

Opposition to patriarchal opinions against women was not heard of until the late 1700s.

Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)

Women must stand up for their rights and not allow their male-dominated society to define what it means to be a woman. Women must take the lead and articulate who they are and what role they will play in society. Women must reject patriarchal assumption that women are inferior to men.

Roots of Feminism

Not until the early 1900s (Progressive Era) that the major roots of feminist criticism began to grow.

Women gained the right to vote Women became prominent activists in the social issues of the day

Health care Education Politics literature

History of Feminist Criticism

Virginia Woolf

A Room of Ones Own (1919)

Declares men have and continue to treat women as inferiors. The male defines what is means to be female and controls the political, economic, social and literary structures.

History of Feminist Criticism

Virginia Woolf

A Room of Ones Own (1919)

Hypothesizes the existence of Shakespeares sister, equally as gifted a writer has he.

Gender prevents her from having a room of her own She cannot obtain an education or find profitable employment because she is a woman. Her innate artistic talents will therefore never flourish, for she cannot afford a room of her own.

History of Feminist Criticism

Virginia Woolf

A Room of Ones Own (1919)

This kind of loss of artistic talent and personal worthiness is the direct result of societys opinion of women: they are intellectually inferior to men. Women must reject this social construct and establish their own identity. Women must challenge the prevailing, false cultural notions about their gender identity and develop a female discourse that will accurately portray their relationship to the world of reality and not to the world of men.

History of Feminist Criticism

Virginia Woolf

A Room of Ones Own (1919)

Woolf believed that if women accepted this challenge, Shakespeares sister can be resurrected in and through women living today, even those who may be washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed.

History of Feminist Criticism

Simone de Beauvior

The Second Sex (1949)

foundational work of 20th century feminism Declares that French society (and Western societies in general) are PATRIARCHAL, controlled by males. Like Woolf, believed that the male defines what it means to be human, including, therefore, what it means to be female. Since the female is not the male, she becomes the Other, finding herself a nonexistent player in the major social institutions of her culture

Church Government Educational systems

History of Feminist Criticism

Simone de Beauvior

The Second Sex (1949)

Woman must break the bonds of her patriarchal society and define herself if she wishes to become a significant human being in her own right and defy male classification as the Other.

Must ask herself, What is a woman? Answer must not be mankind (generic label allows men to define women as relative to him, not as herself.)

History of Feminist Criticism

Kate Millet

Sexual Politics (1970)

challenges the social ideological characteristics of both the male and the female.

A female is born but a woman is created.

Ones sex is determined at birth (male or female) Ones gender is a social construct created by cultural ideals and norms (masculine or feminine)

History of Feminist Criticism

Kate Millet

Sexual Politics (1970)

challenges the social ideological characteristics of both the male and the female.

Women and men (consciously and unconsciously) conform to the cultural ideas established for them by society. Cultural norms and expectations are transmitted through media: television, movies, songs, and literature. Boys must be aggressive, self-assertive, domineering Girls must be passive, meek, humble

History of Feminist Criticism

Kate Millet

Sexual Politics (1970)

Women must revolt against the power center of their culture: male dominance. Women must establish female social conventions for themselves by establishing and articulating female discourse, literary studies, and feminist theory.

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Feminist critics began to examine the traditional literary canon

Discovered examples that supported assertions of Beauvoir and Millet

that males considered the female the Other male dominance and prejudice

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Feminist critics began to examine the traditional literary canon

Stereotypes of women

Sex maniacs Goddesses of beauty Mindless entities Old spinsters

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Feminist critics began to examine the traditional literary canon

found male authors in established literary canon: Dickens, Wordsworth, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Twain, etc. Found few females achieved such status Roles of female, fictionalized characters were limited to secondary positions

Female scholars such as Woolf and Beauvior were ignored

More frequently than not as minor parts within story or as stereotypical images Works seldom referred to by male critics of literary canon

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Feminist critics began to examine the traditional literary canon

Asserted that the males who created and gained prominence in canon assumed all readers were male. Most university professors were males

Women reading such works were trained to read as if they were males.

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Feminist critics began to examine the traditional literary canon

Brought about existence of a female reader who was affronted by the male prejudices abounding in the canon. Brought about questions concerning the male and female qualities of literary form, style, voice, and theme. By 1970s, books that defined womens writings in feminine terms flourished.

History of Feminist Criticism

Feminism in 1960s and 1970s

Having highlighted the importance of gender

Feminist critics began to rediscover literary works authored by females that had been dismissed or deemed inferior by their male counterparts, unworthy to be a part of the canon.

Kate Chopins The Awakening (1899) Doris Lessings The Golden Notebook (1962)

History of Feminist Criticism

Criticism of the 1980s

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own (1977)

Chronicles three historical or evolutionary phases of female writing: Feminine phase (1840-1880) Feminist phase (1880-1920) Female phase (1970-present)

History of Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own (1977)

Feminine phase (1840-1880)

Writers accepted their role as female writers Wrote under pseudonyms Charlotte Bronte George Eliot (Marry Ann Evans Cross) George Sand

History of Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own (1977)

Feminist phase (1880-1920)

Female authors dramatized the plight of the slighted woman Depicted the harsh or cruel treatment of female characters

History of Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own (1977)

Female phase (1970-present)

Feminist critics now concern themselves with developing a particularly female understanding of the female experiences in arts, including a feminine analysis of literary forms and techniques. Uncovering of misogyny in male texts

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bront to Lessing (1977)

Asserts that most criticism of novels by women focuses only on a few novelists recognized as major figures

Jane Austen The Bronts George Eliot Virginia Woolf

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bront to Lessing (1977)

Asserts female authors were consciously and deliberately excluded from the literary canon by the male professors who established the canon itself.

Example: Olive Schreiner

To fully understand the development of womens literature, we must recognize the Schreiners as well as the Austins.

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Urges that the exclusion of the female voice must stop. what is needed is a feminist criticism that is genuinely women centered.

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Coined term gynocritics or gynocriticism: process of constructing a female framework for analysis of womens literature to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models and theories. Gynocriticism

Label given to the study of women as writers Subjects it deals with: the history, style, themes, genres, and structures of writings by women

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Gynocriticism

Has provided critics with four models that address the nature of womens writing

The The The The

biological linguistic psychoanalytic cultural

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Four models that address the nature of womens writing:

The biological model

Emphasizes how the female body marks itself upon a text by providing a host of literary images and a personal, intimate tone.

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Four models that address the nature of womens writing:

The linguistic model

Concerns itself with the need for a female discourse. Investigates the differences between how women and men use language. Asserts that women can and do create a language peculiar to their gender and addresses the way in which this language can be utilized in their writings.

Linguistics

Gilbert & Gubar

The War of Words (1988)

a major campaign in the battle of the sexes is the conflict over language and, specifically, over competing male and female claims to linguistic primacy (228). Its not enough to challenge the way women have been portrayed in literature; must recognize that language itself has been shaped by men in ways that denigrate and alienate women.

Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter

Four models that address the nature of womens writing:

The psychoanalytic model

Based on an analysis of the female psyche and how such an analysis affects the writing process. Emphasizes the flux and fluidity of female writings as opposed to male rigidity and structure.

Elaine Showalter

Four models that address the nature of womens writing:

The cultural model

Investigates how the society in which female authors work and functions shapes womens goals, responses, and points of view.

By drawing attention to lesser known writers, Showalter led the way for other feminist critics to contribute to the reshaping of the literary canon.
Zora Neale Hurston Charlotte Perkins Gilman Kate Chopin Susan Glaspell

In order to appreciate the merits of womens writings, must reexamine our ideas about what makes a literary work excellent or important. Must not only reconsider individual works but also entire genres of writing long dismissed s inherently minor, popular, transient, and feminine (DuBois, Feminist Scholarship)

19th century sentimental fiction

Stereotypical Criticism

(Sandra) Gilbert & (Susan) Gubar

Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1979)

Analyze literature in relationship to the myths created by men and challenge such myths.

those mythic masks male artists have fastened over [womans] human face. Passive, submissive angel Destructive, sinister monster

Judith Fetterly

The Resisting Reader (1978)

Women should resist the meanings that male authors or female authors who have inherited patriarchal values embed in their books. A woman must read as a woman exorcising the male mind that has been implanted in women.

Stereotypical Criticism

Judith Fryers The Faces of Eve: Women

in the 19th Century American Novel

(1976)

Faces of Eve:
The The The The Temptress American princess Great Mother New Woman

Stereotypical Criticism

Not all stereotypical criticism is negative with the attack on works by male authors.

Annis Pratt examines healthier representations (New Feminist Criticism) Miriam Lerenbaum (Moll Flanders: A Woman on Her Own Account)

Defends Defoe as shedding a positive light on the female character Moll.

Feminist critics also criticize critics they consider to be sexist.

Phallic Criticism (Annis Pratt)

Critics that look at and distort chauvinistic interpretations of works either by men or women.

Nina Bayms Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors

Scarlet Letter

Critics who ignore literature by women.

Carol Ohmanns Emily Bronte in the Hands of Male Critics

Wuthering Heights

Some feminist critics have attempted to use literature and criticism to promote social change.

Carolyn G. Heilbrun

(Reinventing Womanhood -1979)

Makes literary criticism a part of her effort to promote the struggle for female selfhood.
(Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory

Toril Moi
1985)

Feminist criticism can and should contribute to social change the principal objective of feminist criticismhas always been political: it seeks to expose, not to perpetuate, patriarchal practices.

Feminist Criticism

No one critical theory of writing dominates feminist criticism; few theorists agree upon a unifying feminist approach to textual analysis.

American: textual, stressing repression British: Marxist, stressing oppression French: psychoanalytic, stressing repression

Feminist Criticism

Asserts that most of our literature presents a masculine-patriarchal view in which the role of women is negated or at best minimized.

Feminist View
Attempts to show that writers of traditional literature have ignored women and have transmitted misguided and prejudiced views of them; Attempts to stimulate the creation of a critical environment that reflects a balanced view of the nature and value of women;

Feminist View
Attempts to recover the works of women writers of past times and to encourage the publication of present women writers so that the literary canon may be expanded to recognize women as thinkers and artists; and Urges transformations in the language to eliminate inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic distortions.

Questions for Analysis

Is the author male or female? Is the text narrated by a male or female? What types of roles do women have in the text? Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary and minor characters? Do any stereotypical characterizations of women appear? What are the attitudes toward women held by the male characters?

Questions for Analysis

What is the authors attitude toward women in society? How does the authors culture influence his or her attitude? Is feminine imagery used? If so, what is the significance of such imagery? Do the female characters speak differently than do the male characters? In your investigation, compare the frequency of speech for the male characters to the frequency of speech for the female characters.