Feminist Criticism
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Transcript of Feminist Criticism
Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex; the movement associated with this (Oxford English Dictionary)
First Wave: political, ends in 1920 when women got the vote
Second Wave: cultural and political, 1960s feminist movement essentialist vs. constructivist arguments
Third Wave: 1980s & 90s international movement
1960’s & 70’s : critique of representations of women in male-authored texts
1970’s & 80’s: expanding the canon & recovering of texts by women
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper” & Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
Gilbert & Gubar’s Madwoman in the Attic (1979)
1990’s – Present: women & agency
A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists
from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977.
Three phases:Feminine: 1840-80 women writing like menFeminist: 1880-1920 women advocating for their
rightsFemale: 1920-present women examining
biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic, and cultural differences
Gynocriticism: women need to study writing by women, their “mothers”
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. “anxiety of influence”: Bloom’s patriarchal
model in The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (1973) doesn’t fit woman writer’s experience:
Precursors are male Models as written are angel/demon stereotypes
“anxiety of authorship”: fear of writing at all women taught to be self effacing female authors as madwomen hiding from
publication
Essentialistgender reflects a natural difference
between men and women that is as much psychological, even linguistic, as it is biological
Constructivistaccepting of the idea that gender is made
by culture in history
“An analysis of gender that ‘ignores’ race, class, nationality, and sexuality is one that assumes a white, middle-class, heterosexual woman inclined toward motherhood as the subject of feminism; only by questioning the status of the subject of feminism – ‘woman’ – does a feminist criticism avoid replicating the masculinist cultural error of taking the dominant for the universal” (765).
Womanism is a feminist term coined by Alice Walker
It is a reaction to the realization that feminism does not fully encompass the perspectives of black women
A Womanist is a woman who loves women and appreciates women’s culture and power as something that is incorporated into the world as a whole
Addresses the racist and classist aspects of white feminism and actively opposes separatist ideologies
It includes the word “man”, recognizing that black men are an integral part of black women’s lives as their children, lovers, and family members
Accounts for the ways in which black women support and empower black men
Serves as a tool for understanding the Black woman’s relationship to men as different from the white woman’s due to a shared history of racial oppression
Used as a means for analyzing black women’s literature, as it marks the place where race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect
A philosophy that advocates living in sexual and social equality and in harmony with nature
Humans should reject current male-dominated, warlike cultures and return to the egalitarian societal model of the past –the true path of human cultural evolution
Humans must rediscover and reaffirm the ancient Mother Goddess, who represents the feminine aspect of the divine and the union of nature and spirituality
Most people assume that the only alternative to patriarchy is matriarchies – in other words, if men do not dominate women, then women must dominate men – this is a dominator society worldview
The real alternative to patriarchy is not matriarchy which is only the other side of the dominator coin
The alternative is a Partnership Society
1. Rethink the canon—the accepted “greats” of all-time—to include women authors, poets, directors, actors
2. Examine representations of women in literature and film by male and female authors & moviemakers
3. Challenge representations of women as “other,” as “lack,” as part of “nature” (whereas men are part of “culture” and better than “natural” or “emotional”)
4. Raise the question of whether men and women are “essentially” different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different (subjugating women as “worse” than men in the important ways)
1. Are there “natural” roles men and women fill?2. To what extent are our roles created by culture?
Nature vs. nurture3. Who puts limitations on genders?4. Who grants privileges to a gender?5. Examines these two statements:
A “woman” is/has ______________ (adjective, image, trait, ability…)
A “man” is/has _______________ (adjective, image, trait, ability…)
6. Should we scrap our created gender roles and stereotypes?7. How does a creator’s gender affect a piece?8. What are the social expectations of men and women in this piece?9. Are the social norms different for men and women?10. How does society value men and women differently?
What about men is valued? What about women is valued?
Essential Questions:How does gender matter/function in this
piece?How are women portrayed/depicted in this
piece? This lens helps examine how gender is a
factor in a piece - the main focus is on how women are portrayed, how they function, behave, are limited/privileged for being women - however, also examines how maleness defines roles & limits men.
subjugate “other” gender roles hegemony oppression gender expectations exploitation relative meaning