feminism

DEFINITION OF FEMINIST CRITICISM

Feminist criticism became a dominant force in Western literary studies in the late

1970s, when feminist theory more broadly conceived was applied to linguistic and

literary matters. Since the early 1980s, feminist literary criticism has developed and

diversified in a number of ways and is now characterized by a global perspective.

French feminist criticism garnered much of its inspiration from Simone de

Beauvoir’s seminal book, Lé Deuxiéme Sexe (1949; The Second Sex). Beauvoir argued

that associating men with humanity more generally (as many cultures do) relegates

women to an inferior position in society. Subsequent French feminist critics writing

during the 1970s acknowledged Beauvoir’s critique but focused on language as a tool of

male domination, analyzing the ways in which it represents the world from the male point

of view and arguing for the development of a feminine language and writing.

Although interested in the subject of feminine language and writing, North

American feminist critics of the 1970s and early 1980s began by analyzing literary

texts—not by abstractly discussing language—via close textual reading and historical

scholarship. One group practiced "feminist critique," examining how women characters

are portrayed, exposing the patriarchal ideology implicit in the so-called classics, and

demonstrating that attitudes and traditions reinforcing systematic masculine dominance

are inscribed in the literary canon. Another group practiced what came to be called

"gynocriticism," studying writings by women and examining the female literary tradition to

find out how women writers across the ages have perceived themselves and imagined

reality.

While it gradually became customary to refer to an Anglo-American tradition of

feminist criticism, British feminist critics of the 1970s and early 1980s objected to the

tendency of some North American critics to find universal or "essential" feminine

attributes, arguing that differences of race, class, and culture gave rise to crucial

differences among women across space and time. British feminist critics regarded their

own critical practice as more political than that of North American feminists, emphasizing

an engagement with historical process in order to promote social change.

By the early 1990s, the French, American, and British approaches had so

thoroughly critiqued, influenced, and assimilated one another that nationality no longer

automatically signaled a practitioner’s approach. Today’s critics seldom focus on

"woman" as a relatively monolithic category; rather, they view "women" as members of

different societies with different concerns. Feminists of color, Third World (preferably

called postcolonial) feminists, and lesbian feminists have stressed that women are not

defined solely by the fact that they are female; other attributes (such as religion, class,

and sexual orientation) are also important, making the problems and goals of one group

of women different from those of another.

Many commentators have argued that feminist criticism is by definition gender

criticism because of its focus on the feminine gender. But the relationship between

feminist and gender criticism is, in fact, complex; the two approaches are certainly not

polar opposites but, rather, exist along a continuum of attitudes toward sex, sexuality,

gender, and language.

Adapted from The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms by Ross

Murfin and Supriya M. Ray. Copyright 1998 by Bedford Books.

FEMINISMS

by C. T. MOORE et al





A variety of movements in feminism means that calling one's self a feminist can mean

many things. In general, members of the following categories of feminism believe in the

listed policies; however as with any diverse movement, there are disagreements within

each group and overlap between others. This list is meant to illustrate the diversity of

feminist thought and belief. It does not mean that feminism is fragmented (although it

often seems that way!). Much of the definitions presented here are inspired from

_American Feminism_ by Ginette Castro; there is a definite American bias here. Other

sources were _Feminist Frameworks_ (2nd ed.) by Jaggar and Rothenberg (which is a

worthwhile but incomplete reader that tried to sort out these various schools of feminist

thought). Any additional, balancing information from other countries and/or books is

more than welcome (and will be incorporated).

Defining various kinds of feminism is a tricky proposition. The diversity of

comment with most of the kinds presented here should alert you to the dangers and

difficulties in trying to "define" feminism. Since feminism itself resists all kinds of

definitions by its very existence and aims, it is more accurate to say that there are all

kinds of "flavors" and these flavors are mixed up every which way; there is no set of

Baskin Robbins premixed flavors, as it were.



Amazon Feminism

Amazon feminism is dedicated to the image of the female hero in fiction and in

fact, as it is expressed in art and literature, in the physiques and feats of female athletes,

and in sexual values and practices.

Amazon feminism is concerned about physical equality and is opposed to gender

role stereotypes and discrimination against women based on assumptions that women are

supposed to be, look or behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless.

Amazon feminism rejects the idea that certain characteristics or interests are

inherently masculine (or feminine), and upholds and explores a vision of heroic

womanhood. Thus Amazon feminism advocates e.g., female strength athletes, martial

artists, soldiers, etc. [TG]



Anarcho-Feminism

Anarcho-feminism was never a huge movement, especially in the United States,

and you won't find a whole lot written about it. I mention it mostly because of the

influential work of Emma Goldman, who used anarchism to craft a radical feminism that

was (alas!) far ahead of her time. Radical feminism expended a lot of energy dealing with

a basis from which to critique society without falling into Marxist pleas for socialist

revolution. It also expended a lot of energy trying to reach across racial and class lines.

Goldman had succeeded in both. Radical feminist Alix Schulman realized this, but not in

time to save her movement. She's put out a reader of Goldman's work and a biography,

both of which I recommend highly. [JD]

Cultural Feminism

As radical feminism died out as a movement, cultural feminism got rolling. In

fact, many of the same people moved from the former to the latter. They carried the name

"radical feminism" with them, and some cultural feminists use that name still. (Jaggar

and Rothenberg don't even list cultural feminism as a framework separate from radical

feminism, but Echols spells out the distinctions in great detail.) The difference between

the two is quite striking: whereas radical feminism was a movement to transform society,

cultural feminism retreated to vanguardism, working instead to build a women's culture.

Some of this effort has had some social benefit: rape crisis centers, for example; and of

course many cultural feminists have been active in social issues (but as individuals, not as

part of a movement). [JD]

Cultural feminists can sometimes come up with notions that sound disturbingly

Victorian and non-progressive: that women are inherently (biologically) "kinder and

gentler" than men and so on. (Therefore if all leaders were women, we wouldn't have

wars.) I do think, though, that cultural feminism's attempts to heighten respect for what is

traditionally considered women's work is an important parallel activity to recognizing

that traditionally male activities aren't necessarily as important as we think. [CTM]

I have often associated this type of statement [inherently kinder and gentler] with

Separatist Feminists, who seem to me to feel that women are *inherently* kinder and

gentler, so why associate with men? (This is just my experience from Separatists I

know...I haven't read anything on the subject.) I know Cultural Feminists who would

claim women are *trained* to be kinder and gentler, but I don't know any who have said

they are *naturally* kinder. [SJ]

As various 1960s movements for social change fell apart or got co-opted, folks

got pessimistic about the very possibility of social change. Many of then turned their

attention to building alternatives, so that if they couldn't change the dominant society,

they could avoid it as much as possible. That, in a nutshell, is what the shift from radical

feminism to cultural feminism was about. These alternative-building efforts were

accompanied with reasons explaining (perhaps justifying) the abandonment of working

for social change. Cultural feminism's justification was biological determinism. This

justification was worked out in great detail, and was based on assertions in horribly-

flawed books like Elizabeth Gould Davis's _The First Sex_ and Ashley Montagu's _The

Natural Superiority of Women_. So notions that women are "inherently kinder and

gentler" are one of the foundations of cultural feminism, and remain a major part of it. A

similar concept held by some cultural feminists is that while various sex differences

might not be biologically determined, they are still so thoroughly ingrained as to be

intractable. There is no inherent connection between alternative-building and ideologies

of biological determinism (or of social intracta- bility). SJ has apparently encountered

alternative-builders who don't embrace biological determinism, and I consider this a very

good sign. [JD]

I should point out here that Ashley Montagu is male, and his book was first

copyright in 1952, so I don't believe that it originated as part of the separatist movements

in the '60's. It may still be horribly flawed; I haven't yet read it. [CTM]



Erotic Feminism

[European] This seemed to start (as a movement) in Germany under the rule of

Otto von Bismarck. He ruled the land with the motto "blood and iron". In society the man

was the _ultra manly man_ and power was patriarchal power. Some women rebelled

against this, by becoming WOMAN. Eroticism became a philosophical and metaphysical

value and the life-creating value. [RG]

Eco-Feminism:

This branch of feminism is much more spiritual than political or theoretical in

nature. It may or may not be wrapped up with Goddess worship and vegetarianism. Its

basic tenet is that a patriarchical society will exploit its resources without regard to long

term consequences as a direct result of the attitudes fostered in a patriarchical/hierarchical

society. Parallels are often drawn between society's treatment of the environment,

animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting patriarchical culture, eco-

feminists feel that they are also resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. And vice-

versa. [CTM]

This is actually socially-conscious environmentalism with a tiny smattering of the

radical and cultural feminist observation that exploitation of women and exploitation of

the earth have some astonishing parallels. The rest of "eco-feminism" turns out to be a

variation on socialism. The Green movements of Europe have done a good job of

formulating (if not implementing) an environmentally aware feminism; and while Green

movements were not originally considered a part of eco-feminism, they are now

recognized as a vital component. [JD]

(If I remember correctly, a couple of feminist groups, including NOW have joined

up with Green parties. [CTM])



Feminazi:

This term is of course completely without merit, but there's the definition of it

FYI. [CTM]



Feminism and Women of Color:

In _feminist theory from margin to center_ (1984), bell hooks writes of "militant

white women" who call themselves "radical feminists" but hooks labels them

"reactionary" . . . Hooks is refering to cultural feminism here. Her comment is a good

introduction to that fractious variety of feminism that Jaggar and Rothenberg find hard to

label any further than to designate its source as women of color. It is a most vital variety,

covering much of the same ground as radical feminism and duplicating its dynamic

nature. Yet bad timing kept the two from ever uniting. For more information you might

want to also read hooks' book and her earlier reader, _ain't i a woman?_ Whereas radical

feminism was primarily formulated by educated white women focusing on women's

issues, this variety was formulated by women who would not (because they could not)

limit their focus. What is so extraordinary is that the two converged in so many ways,

with the notable exception that the women of color were adamantly opposed to

considering one form of oppression (sexism) without considering the others. [JD]

I think an important work in the history of feminism and women of color is Gloria

Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga's anthology, _This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By

Radical Women of Color_. It's my belief that the unique contribution of women of color,

who experience at least two forms of discrimination daily, provides balance and reality to

much of the more theoretical forms of academic feminism favored by educated white

women. [EE]



Individualist, or Libertarian Feminism

Individualist feminism is based upon individualist or libertarian (minimum

government or anarchocapitalist) philosophies, i.e. philosophies whose primary focus is

individual autonomy, rights, liberty, independence and diversity.



Lesbianism:

There are a couple of points to make here. First is that Lesbianism is not

necessarily a *de facto* part of feminism. While it is true that merely being a lesbian is a

direct contravention of "traditional" concepts of womanhood, Lesbians themeselves hold

a wide variety of opionions on the subject of feminism just as their straight sisters do.

On the other hand, Lesbianism has sometimes been made into a political point by

straight women "becoming" lesbian in order to fully reject men. However, it is never

accurate to characterise all feminists as Lesbians nor all Lesbians as feminists.

The reader should also note that homophobia is as present among feminists as it is

in any other segment of society. Lesbianism and feminism, for all their common points

and joint interests, are two very different groups. [CTM]



Liberal Feminism:

This is the variety of feminism that works within the structure of mainstream

society to integrate women into that structure. Its roots stretch back to the social contract

theory of government instituted by the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Mary

Wollstonecraft were there from the start, proposing equality for women. As is often the

case with liberals, they slog along inside the system, getting little done amongst the

compromises until some radical movement shows up and pulls those compromises left of

center. This is how it operated in the days of the suffragist movement and again with the

emergence of the radical feminists. [JD]



Marxist and Socialist Feminism

Marxism recognizes that women are oppressed, and attributes the oppression to

the capitalist/private property system. Thus they insist that the only way to end the

oppression of women is to overthrow the capitalist system. Socialist feminism is the

result of Marxism meeting radical feminism. Jaggar and Rothenberg point to significant

differences between socialist feminism and Marxism, but for our purposes I'll present the

two together. Echols offers a description of socialist feminism as a marriage between

Marxism and radical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner. Marxists and

socialists often call themselves "radical," but they use the term to refer to a completely

different "root" of society: the economic system. [JD]



Material Feminism

A movement in the late 19th century to liberate women by improving their

material condition. This meant taking the burden of housework and cooking off their

shoulders. _The Grand Domestic Revolution_ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one

reference. [RZ]

Moderate Feminism:

This branch of feminism tends to be populated by younger women or other

women who have not directly experienced discrimination. They are closely affiliated with

liberal feminism, but tend to question the need for further effort, and do not think that

Radical feminism is any longer viable and in fact rather embarrassing (this is the group

most likely to espouse feminist ideas and thoughts while denying being "feminist").

[CTM]



'pop-feminism'

This term has appeared several times on soc.feminism. It appears to be a catch-all

for the bogey"man" sort of feminism that everyone loves to hate: you know, the kind of

feminism that grinds men under its heel and admits to no wrong for women. It is doubtful

that such a caricature actually exists, yet many people persist in lumping all feminists into

this sort of a category. [CTM]



Radical Feminism:

Provides the bulwark of theoretical thought in feminism. Radical feminism

provides an important foundation for the rest of "feminist flavors". Seen by many as the

"undesireable" element of feminism, Radical feminism is actually the breeding ground

for many of the ideas arising from feminism; ideas which get shaped and pounded out in

various ways by other (but not all) branches of feminism. [CTM]

Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from approximately

1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted as it was then, nor does it provide a

foundation for, for example, cultural feminism. In addition, radical feminism is not and

never has been related to the Maoist-feminist group Radical Women. [EE]

This term refers to the feminist movement that sprung out of the civil rights and

peace movements in 1967-1968. The reason this group gets the "radical" label is that they

view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of opression, one that cuts

across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a movement intent on

social change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact. [JD]

Ironically, this get-to-the-roots movement is the most root-less variety of

feminism. This was part of its strength and part of its weakness. It was always dynamic,

always dealing with factions, and always full of ideas. Its influence has been felt in all the

other varieties listed here, as well as in society at large. [JD]

To me, radical feminism is centred on the necessity to question gender roles. This

is why I identify current "gender politics" questions as radical feminist issues. Radical

feminism questions why women must adopt certain roles based on their biology, just as it

questions why men adopt certain other roles based on theirs. Radical feminism attempts

to draw lines between biologically- determined behavior and culturally-determined

behavior in order to free both men and women as much as possible from their previous

narrow gender roles. [EE]

The best history of this movement is a book called _Daring to be Bad_, by

Echols. I consider that book a must! [JD] Another excellent book is simply titled

_Radical Feminism_ and is an anthology edited by Anne Koedt, a well-known radical

feminist [EE].

Radical feminist theory is to a large extent incompatible with cultural feminism.

The reason is that the societal forces it deals with seem so great in magnitude that they

make it impossible to identify any innate masculine or feminine attributes except those

which are results of the biological attributes. (This is what I think the [above] "view[s]

the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of oppression," [is getting at]

although I don't agree with that statement in its context.) [DdJ]



Separatists:

Popularly and wrongly depicted as Lesbians, these are the feminists who advocate

separation from men; sometimes total, sometimes partial. Women who organize women-

only events are often unfairly dubbed separatist. Separatists are sometimes literal,

sometimes figurative. The core idea is that "separating" (by various means) from men

enables women to see themselves in a different context. Many feminists, whether or not

separatist, think this is a necessary "first step", by which they mean a temporary

separation for personal growth, not a permanent one. [CTM]



There is sometimes some overlap between separatist and cultural feminists (see below).

[SJ]



It is equally inaccurate to consider all Lesbians as separatist; while it is true that they do

not interact with men for sexual fulfillment, it is not true that they therefore automatically

shun all interaction with men. [CTM] And, conversely, it is equally inaccurate to consider

all separatists Lesbians. Additionally, lesbian feminism may be considered a category

distinct from separatist feminism. Lesbian feminism puts more emphasis on lesbianism --

active bonding with women -- than separatism does, in its emphasis on removing bonds

with men. [EE]



[Other categories? Both formal and informal are welcome.]



...THERE FOLLOWS DESCRIPTIONS OF MEN'S MOVEMENTS...



My thanks to: Ellen Eades[EE] David desJardins [DdJ] Jym Dyer [JD] Thomas Gramstad

[TG] Rebecca Grinter [RG] David Gross [DG] (incl. all info on men's movements) Stacy

Johnson [SJ] Rudy Zalesak [RZ] --------------



Please mail in comments, additions, corrections, suggestions, and so on to feminism-

request@ncar.ucar.edu. I reserve all rights to edit material for brevity, clarity, and

constructiveness.



--Cindy Tittle Moore



"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that

people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a

doormat, or a prostitute." -- Rebecca West, 1913

Some Important Texts in the History of Feminist Lit Crit



1929 Virginia Woolf Room ofOne'sOwn

1938 Virginia Woolf Three Guineas

1953 Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex (1949 translated in 1953)

1963 Betty Friedan The FeminineMystique

Moers, Ellen Literary Women

1968 Mary Ellmann Thinking About Women

1970 Kate Millett Sexual Politics

1971 Norman Mailer The Prisoner of Sex

1972 Patricia Meyer Spacks The Female Imagination

Susan Cornillion, ed. Images of Women in Fiction

1973 Carolyn Heilbrun Toward a Recognition of Androgyny

1974 Elizabeth Hardwick Seduction and Betrayal

Molly Haskell From Reverence to Rape; Women in

the Movies

Alice Walker "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens"

1975 Helene Cixous “The Laugh of the Medusa"

Jane Rule Lesbian Images

Annette Kolodny "Some Notes on Defining a 'Feminist

Literary Criticism'."

Donovan, Josephine, ed. Feminist Lit Crit: Explorations in Theory

1977 Elaine Showalter A Literature of Their Own

Barbara Smith "Towards a Black Feminist Criticism"

1978 Judith Fetterley The Resisting Reader

Jane Thompkins "Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Nina Baym Women's Fiction: A Guide to Novels

by & abt Women in America

Julia P. Stanley & Susan J. Wolfe“Toward a Feminist Aesthetic”

1979 Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar The Madwoman in the Attic

Carolyn Heilbrun Reinventing Womanhood

1980 Annette Kolodny "Dancing Through the Minefield”

Carol Christ Diving Deep and Surfacing

Michele Barrett Women's Oppression Today

Barbara Christian Black Women Novelists: Development of a

Tradition

Marks & DeCourtrivon, eds New French Feminisms

Nina Baym "Melodramas of Beset Manhood”

1981 Carol Pearson & Katherine Pope Female Hero in Brit & Am Lit

Annis Pratt Archetypal Patterns in Women's

Poetry

Ann Rosalind Jones "Writing the Body: Toward an Understand-

ing of l'Ecriture Feminine”

Catherine Stimpson "Zero Degree Deviancy: The Lesbian Novel

in English”

Bonnie Zimmerman “What Has Never Been: An Overview of

Lesbian Feminist Lit Crit”

Lillian Faderman Surpassing the Love of Men

Elaine Showalter "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness."

1982 Carol Gilligan In a Different Voice

Elizabeth Abel, ed. Writing and Sexual Difference (Critical

Inquiry)

Jane Gallop The Daughter’s Seduction

Hull, Bell-Scott, & Smith All the Wmn Are White. . .But Some of Us Are

Brave: Black Wm's

Jonathan Culler "Reading As a Woman" in On

Deconstruction

Jane Marcus “Storming the Toolshed”

1983 Alice Walker In Search of Our Mother's Gardens

Cherrie Morgan & Gloria Anzaldua This Bridge Called My Back

Joanna Russ How to Suppress Women's Writing

Lillian Robinson "Treason Our Text"

Barbara Christian "Trajectories of Self-Definition: Placing

Contemporary Afro-American Women's

Fiction"

1984 Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar, edsThe Norton Anthology of Lit by Women

1985 Elaine Showalter, ed. The New Feminist Criticism

Eliane Showalter The Female Malady

Toril Moi Sexual/Textual Politics

Alice Jardine Gynesis: Configurations of Women

and Modernity

Luce Irigaray Speculum of the Other

Women(1974)

Kahn & Greene, eds. Making a Difference:Fem Lit Crit

Christian, Barbara. Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on

Black Women Writers

1986 Flynn & Schweikert, eds.. Gender and Reading

Shari Benstock Women Writers of the Left Bank

1987 Alice Jardine & Paul Smith. Eds. Men in Feminism

1988 Gilbert and Gubar, The War of the Words, Vol. I of No Man's

Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century

Linda Alcoff "Cultural Feminism vs. Post-

Structuralism"

1989 Elaine Showalter "A Criticism of Our Own: Autonomy and

Assimilation in Afro-American and Feminist Literary Theory “

Gilbert & Gubar No Man’s Land II: Sexchanges

1990 Barbara Smith "The Truth that Never Hurts: Black

Lesbians inFiction in the 1980"s"

Boone & Cadden Engendering Men: Question of Male Fem

Crit

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Epistemology of the Closet

1991 Dale M. Bauer , Susan Jaret McKinstry, eds Feminism, Bakhtin, and the Dialogic

1993 Warhol & Herndl Feminisms

Gayle Greene & Coppelia Kahn, eds. Changing Subjects: The Making of Feminist

Lit Crit

Pam Morris Literature and Feminism

1994 Barbara Christian "Layered Rhythms: Virginia Woolf and

Toni Morrison”

Gilbert & Gubar No Man’s Land III: Letters from the Front





Background/ Context/ Variations

 Goes as far back as Mary Astell 1692, "Serious Proposal to the Ladies"

 Susan B Anthony and the beginnings of the women's movement in the US in 1848

 Virginia Woolf, A Room of one's Own (1929) first real book of femlitcrit

 Simone deBeauvoir, The Second Sex

 Starts full-bore in the early 70’s, along with “3rd Wave” feminism with “Images of

Women” criticism

 1970 Kate Millett, Sexual Politics

 Anti-authoritarian 60’s/ 70’s (EX: rebel against New Criticism)







Central Assumptions

 Sexual oppression exists

 Gender counts: Being female and/or thinking as a female does make a

difference, even if it’s only a social/historical one

 gender and sex are different -- gender is socially constructed. The differences

between men and women are not so much biological as social:. Sex is

biological-- (male/female); gender is cultural (masculine/feminine) and there

is no necessary connection between the two.

 Diversity and Identity Count-- who we are is part of our reading process

 Subjectivity: Like reader-response critics, feminist critics believe that the

perceiver makes a big impact on reading. Therefore, feminist critics are

interested in the historical/cultural identity politics of both readers and writers.

 Read as a Woman: You don’t have to be female to read like a woman or to

analyze texts from a feminine point of view or to do research on women

writers.

 Canon Building: Traditional women’s writing and reading have been

neglected and it is worthwhile to restore them to parity. The literary canon has

largely been a product of, by, and for men, and therefore the roles for women

as either authors or characters are limited

 Everything is political. All reading and writing is political

 Women’s experience matters: Validation of the personal (“the personal is the

political”); individual experience counts; things that happen to you, also

happen to everyone else and are part of a power structure that is ultimately

political

 Literature and literary criticism are political

 Gender discrimination is parallel to and part of the same system that produces

discrimination according to race, ethnicity, sexual preference, class etc.







Key Terms

 The Other – woman has been categorized as “Other”

 Social construction of gender (and race)

 Gynocriticism -- the study of literature by women and about women

 misogyny -- hatred of women / misanthrope -- hates people / misandry -- hatred

of men

 political criticism --

 essentialism -- a deterministic view that "biology is destiny" (ooposite of social

construction) belief that there is an inherent set of traits that determine both sex

and gender, that male and female are immutable, absolute categories,





Analytical Methods

 Uses all analytical methods



 Mimetic – images of women – critiques stereotypes, archetypal

 Pragmatic – how do women read? Do women read differently from

men? What happens when you read “as a woman”. Does the text

havea double discourse: does it speak differently to women and men?

 Expressive – very concerned with situation of the woman writer, with

establishing the literary history of women writers(recovery of lost

women writers)

 Objective – what are the assumptions that govern literary value?Why

are certain works canonized, while others are forgotten.







Historical Legacy/ Limitations and Rebuttals/ Problems



 Has re-vitalized a number of otherwise moribund ares (EX: Shakespeare

criticism)

 Has resulted in the discovery of many important authors and the re-shaping of the

basic canon

 Has helped to encourage the development of criticism focused on many "othered"

groups: African-American, Latina, Native American, lesbian

 Has had a very strong influence in the development of all kinds of histoirical and

cultural criticism.



 Hesitation to buy into it. Problems with the “F” word. Sense that it is special

pleading. Times that it can be annoying if over-stressed.

 It is hard to keep froim falling into old steroetypes and to keep students from just

solidifying thier prejudices.

 Doesn’t necessary work well with every work.Sometimes looking for things that

aren’t there.

 Can be as guilty as any other form of crit in excluding or “Othering”particular

groups.



"What unites and repeatedly invigorates feminist literary criticism, then, is

neither dogma nor method but [ . . . ] an acute and impassioned

attentiveness to the ways in which primarily male structures of power are

inscribed (or encoded) within our literary inheritance; the consequences of

that encoding for women -- as characters, as readers, and as writers; and,

with that, a shared analytic concern for the implications of that encoding

not only for a better understanding of the past, but also for an improved

reordering of the present and future as well."



-- Annette Kolodny, "Dancing Through the Minefield" (1397-98)



*****



Para feminist merespon tentang kebudayaan yang digabung selama kurun ½ abad

ke 20 meyakini bahwa telah mengakar kebudayaan yang merugikan trhadp

perempuan. Feminist mengkritik tentang pertentangan antara objek gender

perempuan yang dibawah kekuatan dan nilai dari laki-laki. Jaringan kekuatan dari

kebudayaan ini adalah laki-laki sebagai kepala dari



The feminist response to culture that has coalesced in the last half of the twentieth

century recognizes a deeply ingrained prejudice against women. Sometimes

borrowing from both Marxist and structuralist methodology, feminist critics have

explored a pervasive binary opposition built around gender which subordinates

women to objects by which the power and value of all that is male is affirmed. This

cultural web of power and privilege is the patriarchy.



The feminist critique of patriarchal culture actually has a long tradition. Among the

early voices in this critique was Mary Wollonecraft. In 1792 she argued in A

Vindication of the Rights of Women that women must challenge society's assumption

of female inferiority and must strive to articulate their own identities and roles in

society. Among the important twentieth-century voices further articulating the

feminist critique of culture have been Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own, 1919),

Simone de Beavoir (The Second Sex, 1949), Kate Millett (Sexual Politics, 1969), and

Elaine Showalter (A Literature of Their Own, 1977).



Feminist critics share with Marxists and others an awareness of the literature as an

ideological force in culture. From this general awareness, several distinct areas of

focus have developed in feminist criticism of literature. Some critics have focused on

rediscovering and rearticulating previously disenfranchised or suppressed female

voices. Others have reassessed traditional literary texts with an attention to their

inherently engendered elements of content or form. Still others have explored the

awakening female consciousness often dramatized in literature. All of these

emphases, however, explore literature as a product of an on-going patriarchal power

struggle in society.

Critical Assumptions



Succinctly put, here are some common assumptions of feminist criticism:



1. All literature, like all culture, dramatizes implicitly or explicitly the difference

between the masculine and the feminine.

2. Alll literature, like all history, records the struggle of women and men with the

social forces of patriarchy.

3. Criticism functions, as does reading itself, to facilitate the awakening of

human consciousness to the gender-delimiting elements of human

experience.



Critical Strategies



The applications of these assumptions generally fall into one of three broad feminist

approaches:



The Socio-Political Approach of what is sometimes termed the British school of

feminist criticism focuses on a neo-Marxist exposé of the patriarchy as reflected in

the delimited lives and destinies of female characters in literature. This type of

critical discourse often takes an explicitly and aggressively ideological stance,

stressing the important contribution of literature and literary criticism to a radical,

even revolutionary reformation of culture.



The Socio-Psychological Approach of the so-called American school of feminist

criticism focuses on exploring the awakening feminine consciousness reflected in

literature by and about women. Through close textual analysis, this critical approach

has often stressed a psychological maturation not only through a recognition of

gender difference but also through a growing sense of "sisterhood" with other

women. One strategy toward this end has been the recovery or rediscovery of

previously overlooked or suppressed female writers and texts.



The Fe(Male) Approach of the French school of feminist criticism has stressed the

subtle but essential participation of language in the patriarchal forces of society. This

critical approach often draws upon the linguistic concepts of structuralism and post-

structuralism. Some practitioners of this critical method also focus on defining the

distinguishing qualities of L'ecriture féminine (women's writing).



As all three of these approaches reflect, feminist criticism is not based upon an

objective or scientific aesthetic assessment of formal elements. Rather, as David

Cowles has noted, one important feminist motto is that "'the personal is political'";

hence, feminist criticism is self-consciously ideological, seeking "to change individual

readers and society itself" (218-19). This imperative for personal and social change

is not only acknowledged but also embraced by Elaine Showalter in "Toward a

Feminist Poetics" and Josephine Donovan in "Beyond the Net: Feminist

Criticism as a Moral Criticism."



Works Cited

Cowles, David, et al. The Critical Experience. 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt,

1994.



Kolodny, Annette. "Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the

Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism." Feminist Studies 6

(1980). Rpt. In The Critical Tradition: Classic Text and Contemporary Trends. Ed.

David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford, 1998. 1386-399.





Glossary of Literary Theory

by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown





Feminist criticism:



A criticism advocating equal rights for women in a political, economic, social,

psychological, personal, and aesthetic sense. On the thematic level, the feminist reader

should identify with female characters and their concerns. The object is to provide a

critique of phallocentric assumptions and an analysis of patriarchal visions or ideologies

inscribed in a literature that is male-centered and male-dominated. Such a reader

denounces the outrageously phallic visions of writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Henry

Miller, and Norman Mailer, refusing to accept the cult of masculine virility and

superiority that reduces woman to a sex object, a second sex, a submissive other. As

Judith Fetterley puts it, "Feminist criticism is a political act whose aim is not simply to

interpret the world but to change it by changing the consciousness of those who read and

their relation to what they read. . . [The first act of a feminist critic is] to become a

resisting rather than an assenting reader and, by this refusal to assent, to begin the process

of exorcizing the male mind that has been implanted in us." On the thematic level, then,

the reader rejects stereotypes and examines woman as a theme in literary works.



On the ideological level, the reader seeks to learn not to accept the hegemonic

perspective of the male and refuses to be coopted by a gender-biased criticism. Gender is

largely a cultural construct, as are the stereotypes that go along with it: that the male is

active, dominating, and rational, whereas the female is passive, submissive, and

emotional. Gynocritics strive to define a particularly feminine content and to extend the

canon so that it might include works by lesbians, feminists, and women writers in

general. According to Elaine Showalter, gynocriticism is concerned with "woman as the

producer of textual meaning, with the history, themes, genres, and structures of literature

by women. Its subjects include the psychodynamics of female creativity; linguistics and

the problem of a female language; the trajectory of the individual or collective female

literary career; literary history; and, of course, studies of particular writers and works."



On the deconstructionist level, the aim is to dismantle and subvert the logocentric

assumptions of male discourse -- its valorization of being, meaning, truth, reason, and

logic, its metaphysics of presence. Logocentrism is phallocentric (hence the neologism

"phallogocentrism"); it systematically privileges paternal over maternal power, the

intelligible over the sensible. Patriarchal authority demands unity of meaning and is

obsessed with certainty of origin. The French feminists in particular construe "woman" as

any radical force that subverts the concepts, assumptions, and structures of traditional

male discourse -- the realism, rationality, mastery, and explanation that undergird it. By

contrast, the American and British feminists mainly engage in empirical and thematic

studies of writings by and about women.