Feminist Literary Criticism Applied Literary Criticism Ni Wayan Swardhani W 2013
Defining Feminist Literary Approach •
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"...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization such as the exclusion of women writers from the traditional literary canon: •
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"...unless the critical or historical point of view is feminist, there is a tendency to under-represent the contribution of women writers" (Tyson 82-83).
Looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and "...this critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women" (Richter 1346).
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Kate Millet “the essence of politics is power” and pervasive concept of power in our society is male dominance (Guerin 199). Feminist literary criticism is often a political attack upon other modes of criticism and theory and its social orientation moves beyond traditional literary criticism (Guerin196). Feminist literary critics try to explain how power imbalances due to gender in a given culture are reflected in or challenged by literary text (Guerin 196). Feminist critics sees the very act of speaking – of having a language – as a focus for studying women writers, so often silenced in the past (Guerin 197) women’s silence resistance to the dominant discourse
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Feminist Literary Approach examines the experiences of women from all races and classes and cultures, including, for example, African American, Latina, Asian American, American Indian, lesbian, handicapped, elderly and Third World subjects Annette Kolodny’s playful pluralism liberal tolerance, interdisciplinary links, and connecting art to the diversity of life (Guerin 197).
Feminist critics generally agree that their goals are to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and re-evaluation of literature by women, and to examine social, cultural, and psychosexual contexts of literature and literary criticism (Guerin 197).
Internal colonialization by men over women
androcentric
even worse than racial segregation (Millet 199)
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Patriarchy = ideology that privileges masculine ways of thinking/points of view and marginalizes women politically, economically and psychologically.
Three Waves of Feminism •
First Wave Feminism - late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like
Mary Wollstonecraft ( A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull contribute to the women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920 with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment
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Second Wave Feminism - early 1960s-late 1970s: building on
more equal working conditions necessary in America during World War II, movements such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, cohere feminist political activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, 1972) and Elaine Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement
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Third Wave Feminism - early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over generalized, over simplified) ideologies and
a white, heterosexual, middle class focus of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories (see below) to expand on marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to "...reconcile it [feminism] with the concerns of the black community...[and] the survival and wholeness of her people, men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform" (Tyson 97).
Historical Phases of Women’s Literary Development According to Elaine Showalter •
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840-1880 phase the feminine phase women writers imitated the dominant tradition
1880-1920 phase the feminist phase women advocated minority rights and protested
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1920 phase -today the female phase a rediscovery of women’s texts and women
Characteristics of Feminist Approach: •
Sex ≠ gender •
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Gender is a socially/culturally constructed. It is learned and performed; it involves the myriad and often normative meanings given to sexual difference by various cultures. Sex is a biologically based category.
Although sex/gender systems differ cross-culturally, most known societies have used and still use sex/gender as a key structural principle organizing their actual and conceptual worlds, usually to the disadvantage of women. •
Feminist scholars argue that gender is a crucial category of analysis and that modes of knowledge which do not take gender into account are partial and incomplete.
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Seek to question and transform androcentric systems of thought which posit the male as the norm. •
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In practice this means not only revealing and critiquing androcentric biases, but also attempting to examine beliefs and practices from the viewpoint of the “other,” treating women and other marginalized groups as subjects, not merely objects.
The existing inequalities between dominant and marginalized groups can and should be removed. •
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Feminist scholarship has an acknowledged and accepted political dimension, as opposed to the hidden political dimension of scholarship that claims to be “neutral” and “objective.” With regard to scholarship, the political goal of feminist work is broader than simply a stronger emphasis on women, though that is an important part of it; the goal is to revise our way of considering history, society, literature, etc. so that neither male nor female is taken as normative, but both are seen as equally conditioned by the gender constructions of their culture.
Elaine Showalter’s Feminist Identifications •
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Biological Model if the text somehow mirrors the body reducing women merely to bodies
Linguistics Model language of sexism
Psychoanalytic Model identifies gender difference as the basis of the psyche, focusing on the relation of gender to the artistic process
Cultural Model places feminist concerns in social contexts, acknowledging class, racial, national, and historical differences ad determinants among women, but offering a collective experience that unites women over time and space – a binding force.
How to Apply Feminist Approach in Literary Criticism •
Purpose: •
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to reveal many subordination and oppression of women to reveal the veil that covers the certain message inside the literary works and reclaim the opinions in literature externally (Ruthven, 1984:24-58)
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men’s perception about women, and how they describe women,
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the creativity of women in relation with their potentiality
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the application of the theory in women’s studies
Four Significant Current Practices on Feminist Literary Approach •
Gender Studies
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Marxist Feminism
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Psychoanalytical Feminism
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Minority Feminist Criticism
Some Problems and Limitation on Feminist Literary Criticism
You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore (1964) You don't own me I'm not just one of your many toys You don't own me Don't say I can't go with other boys And don't tell me what to do Don't tell me what to say And please, when I go out with you Don't put me on display 'cause
You don't own me Don't try to change me in any way You don't own me Don't tie me down 'cause I'd never stay
I don't tell you what to say I don't tell you what to do So just let me be myself That's all I ask of you
I'm young and I love to be young I'm free and I love to be free To live my life the way I want To say and do whatever I please
And don't tell me what to do Oh, don't tell me what to say And please, when I go out with you Don't put me on display
I don't tell you what to say Oh, don't tell you what to do So just let me be myself That's all I ask of you
I'm young and I love to be young I'm free and I love to be free To live
Those to Relate with Feminist Aaproach •
Rebecca West
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Elaine Showalter
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Adrienne Rich
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Virginia Woolf
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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Kate Millet
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Betty Friedan
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Myra Jehlen
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Julia Kristeva
Sources: •
Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.
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http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/
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http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femcharacteristics.html
