this Power point is focused on the three major Literary theory (Marxism, Femnism and Postcolonialism )

1. Faculty of Humanities
Department of English Language and Literature
Post Graduate Program
English Literature Ph.D. Program
Bahir Dar University
Presenation for the course Literary Theory and
Criticism I: From Classicalism to (Post) Modernism
(Lite- 701)
Title: Marxist, Feminist and Post Colonial Literary Criticism
By: Dawit Dibekulu Alem
Feb, 2022
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

2. Part one : Marxism
• Origins /Historical Background
• The Fundamental Tenets
• Marxism In Modern Literature
• Key theorist
• Key terms
• Basic assumptions
• Foundational Questions of Marxist
Criticism
• Practical examples a Marxist analysis on
Different Literary works
Outlines

3. Historical Background
• Marxist criticism evolves from the philosophies of Karl
Heinrich Marx (1818-1883)
• He was a German political thinker, philosopher,
economist ,and revolutionist. and Friedrich Engels.
• Friedrich Engles (1820-1895) –German Writers,
Philosophers, Social Critics –Coauthored
• The Communist Manifesto –
• Declared that the capitalists, or the bourgeoisie, had
successfully enslaved the working class, or the
proletariat, through economic policies and control of
the production of goods.
(Lukacs, (1971) as cited in Genova and Okoroegbe,
(n.d)).

4. …cont’d
• Marxism views a literary text as the product of an ideology
particular to a specific historical period, not the product of
individual consciousness.
• His philosophical thinking caused the emergence of
Marxism.
• His well-known work Das Kapital (1867).
• Marx analyzed the structure of society from an economic
point of view.
• Marx stresses that economic structure gives birth to culture,
religion, philosophy, arts, literature, etc.
(Eagleton (1976) , Luckas 1971)

5. Theorists
• Karl Marx
• Fredric Engels
• Terry Eagleton
• Louis Althusser
• Georg Lukacs
• Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
• Raymond Henry Williams (1928-88)
• Pierre Macherey
• Fredric Jameson
Source: 1, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism.
2. Deshmukh , Salgaonkar and Harichandan , (2010 )
3. Barry (2010)

6. Who started it?
• Karl Marx
• Marx stresses that economic structure gives birth to
culture, religion, philosophy, arts, literature, etc..
• Marxism aims to initiate political action to bring about
expected changes in the society.
• German philosopher that became a part of the Young
Hegelians, and later, the Communist League.
• Marx is revered as one of the most influential socialist
thinkers of the 19th century.
• Some of his most notable works are:
 The German Ideology (1846)
 The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Das Kapital (1867)

7. Frederic Engels
• We can’t have Marx without... Engels was pretty
much Marx’s best friend.
• He shared Marx’s socialist beliefs and provided
support financially as well as intellectually while
Marx developed his theories.
• Hegel is considered the creator of the school of
thought called absolute idealism.
• Absolute idealism describes how being is an all-
inclusive whole.
• Some of his major works were:
 The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844)
 Co-authored The Communist Manifesto (1848)

8. Terry Eagleton
• He upholds in his Marxism the traditional Marxist view that
literature is a part of the historical process.
• However, he also includes in his consideration of literature
the neo-marxist tolerance for formal experiments and
modernism.
• As Eagleton, MC “is to show the text as it cannot know
itself, to manifest those conditions of its making (inscribed
in its very letter) about which it is necessarily silent.”
• That is , MC aims at uncovering the socio-economic hidden
forces behind any creativity.
• Text actively produced ideology rather than merely reflect it
(Eagleton, 1976).

9. Louis Althusser
• He is commonly referred to as structural Marxist.
• Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (ISA)
• Reading Capital is an influential early work of Althusser that
makes an intensive philosophical re-reading of Das Capital.
• Althusser is also widely known as an ideology theorist.
• He develops a theory of ideology based on Freud’s and Lacan’s
concepts of ‘the unconscious’ and ‘the mirror phase’
respectively, and
• He describes the structures and systems that enable the concept
of the self.
• He added to this theoretical/ critical approach.
Source : Dobie (2012)

10. ..cont’d
• Relative autonomy
• Ideology “system of representation endowed with an
existence and an historical role at the heart of a given
society” p.166
Althusser posits a series of hypotheses that he explores to
clarify his understanding of ideology:
1. "Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of
individuals to their real conditions of existence" (Lenin
109).
2. "Ideology has a material existence" (Lenin 112).
3. "all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as
concrete subjects" (Lenin 115).
4. "individuals are always-already subjects" (Lenin 119).

11. ..cont’d
• His term “interpellation” helps us examine
how we are convinced by our oppressive
systems to keep doing the miserable work we
do for the system .
• Althusser explored how ideological state
apparatuses (ISAs) control and sculpt: family,
church, work, law, school, arts, sciences…
• So, these structures are both agents of
repression and inevitable – it is impossible to
escape ideology; not to be subjected to it.

12. ..cont’d

13. Georg Lukacs
• Believed that the text will reflect the society that has produced it.
• Stressed that historical approach is different to reflectionism.
• Reflectionists attribute the separation that they discover to the ills of
capitalism.
• His views on ideology in Marxist criticism are flexible.
• He is totally against the opinion of assessing the work of art merely
based on political or social values.
• Lukacs thinks no literature is created keeping any fixed ideology in
the mind.
• He feels every great work of art creates ‘its own unique world’.
• Lukacs feels that publicizing cannot be the prime function of literature
as he believed in the totality of art.
• His stress is on realism, the wholesome presentation of total human
personality with all its contradictions.
Deshmukh , Salgaonkar and Harichandan , (2010 ) and Barry (2010)

14. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
• Approves the primary distinction between economic base
and cultural superstructure.
• Discards the older concept of considering culture as a
disguised reflection of the material base.
• His concept of ‘hegemony’ is very significant.
• Hegemony is a situation when a particular social class, that
is, a sophisticated dominant class establishes its influence
and power through its ideological views about society over
a subordinate class;
• In such a manner that the subordinate class unconsciously
accepts and participates in its oppression and exploitation.
Barry (2010)

15. Pierre Macherey
• He says literary text divorces itself from its ideology with
the help of its fiction and form; and
• It also discovers the inherited contradictions that are present
in the ideology.
• These contradictions are represented in the form of
‘silences’ or ‘gaps’ and are nothing but symptoms of
ideological repressions.
• According to him, it is the foremost duty of the Marxist
critic to make these silences ‘speak’; and
• It also expose the unconscious content of the text, that is, to
reveal the conscious intention of the author.

16. Raymond Henry Williams (1928-88)
• He links literature with the lives of people.
• He thinks Marxist critics have dissociated Economics from culture;
and have ignored individualism.
• He prefers culture to ideology and coins the term ‘Cultural
Materialism’, and thus modifies his views on Marxism.
• Different cultural forces are always in action with the dominant
forces; and these forces are often unsuccessful in gaining complete
power because of the resistance by reactionary forces.
• Hence, Williams suggests that the complex nature of the social
formation should be always considered while analyzing
materialistically the relation between literature and its relevant social
elements.
• William stresses the urgency of an amendment in the determinism of
Marxism that literature reflects reality.

17. Fredric Jameson
• Jameson, a modern American Marxist critic writes about his notions
about Marxism in his book Marxism and Form (1971).
• He discusses the complexities of Structuralism and Post-structuralism
in histotherous
• According to him,
 Archetypal Criticism,
 Psychoanalytical Criticism,
 Structuralist Criticism,
 Semiotics, and
 Deconstruction are various modes of literary criticism that are applicable at
various stages of the critical interpretation of literary work; but
• Marxist criticism integrates them all by retaining their positive
findings within a ‘political interpretation of literary texts.’
• This political interpretation, Jameson says, exposes the concealed role
of the ‘political unconsciousness’.

18. MARXISM- Definition
• Economic structure is the main driving force behind all social
conditions and historical changes.
• Marx considers human history as a series of struggles between
classes -between the oppressed and the oppressing.
• Capitalism is based on exploitation of laborers.
• The workers’ revolution is the inevitable result of exploitation and
the means of emancipation.
• The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, based on
the common ownership of the means of production, distribution,
and exchange. Eagleton, (1976)

19. Marxism Literary Criticism –Focus
• The basic idea: to see the text as how in relation to the economic condition
of the time.
• Marxist Criticism is the belief that literature reflects this class struggle and
materialism.
• It looks at how literature functions in relation to other aspects of the
superstructure, particularly other articulations of ideology.
• Like feminist critics, it investigates how literature can work as a force for
social change, or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions.
• Like New Historicism, it examines how history influences literature; the
difference is that Marxism focuses on the lower classes.
(Eagleton, 1976) and Poblacion (2015).

20. Four Main Areas of Study
Economic Power
Materialism Versus Spirituality
Class Conflict
Art, Literature, And Ideologies

21. Economic Power (class)
• A society is shaped by its forces of production.
• Those who own the means of production dictate what
type of society it is.
• The two main classes of society are:
 the bourgeoisie (who control the means of
production and wealth) and
the proletariat (who operate the means of
production and are controlled by the bourgeoisie).
• Since the bourgeoisie own the means of production
They control the money—
They can manipulate politics, government, education, art, and
media.
Source: Dobie (2012), Hill, (2021) Mambrol(2016). and
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

22. …cont’d
• Capitalism is flawed in that it creates commodification
(a desire for possessions, not for their innate usefulness,
but for their social value).
• Commodification is one way the bourgeoisie keep the
proletariat oppressed.
• Display of material objects is the most common way of
showing off one’s wealth.
• Whenever the proletariat manages to acquire some sort
of status symbol, the bourgeoisie concocts a new one.
• Thus, the proletariat continues to struggle, never able to
“catch up.”
Source: Dobie ,(2012), (Hill, 2021) Mambrol(2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

23. Materialism Vs. Spirituality
• Regardless of what some might claim, social values
reflect material goals, not abstract ideals.
• The material world is the only non-subjective
element in a society.
• Money and material possessions are the same by
every measure within a society, whereas spirituality
is completely subjective.
• The quality of a person’s life is not destroyed by
spiritual failure but by material failure.
Source: Dobie (2012), Hill, (2021) Mambrol(2016). and
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

24. Class Conflict
• A Capitalist society will inevitability experience conflict
between its social classes.
• The owners and the workers will have different ideas about
the division of the wealth generated, and the owners will
ultimately make the decision.
• This constant conflict, or dialectical materialism, is what
instigates change.
• The bourgeoisie present their political, economic, and social
structures as the only reasonable ones.
• The proletariat, indoctrinated from birth to have pride in their
station, are prevented from wanting to overthrow their
oppressors (ironically, the smaller and actually less-powerful
group).
• The only real social division is class.
Source: Dobie (2012), Hill, (2021) Mambrol(2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

25. …..cont’d
• Divisions of :
race,
 ethnicity,
gender, and
religion are artificial, devised by the bourgeoisie to distract
the proletariat from realizing their unity and rebelling against
their oppressors.
• Marx called on the proletariat to reject the social structure of
the bourgeoisie, the rules that would keep them subservient
forever, and form their own values.
• Such a course would be the only way to escape the
oppression, for the proletariat could never defeat the
bourgeoisie on its own terms.
• For the workers to win, they must establish new terms.
Source: Dobie (2012) ,Hill, (2021) Mambrol(2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

26. Art, Literature, and Ideologies
• Art and literature are among the vehicles by which the
bourgeoisie impose their value system on the
proletariat.
• The arts can make the current system seem attractive
and logical, thus lulling the workers into an acceptance
of it.
• Works of art and literature are enjoyable, so the
audience is unaware of being manipulated.
• The bourgeoisie control most artistic output because,
whether through patronage or sponsorship, they are the
entity that funds the arts and entertainment.
Source: Dobie (2012), Hill, (2021) Mambrol (2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

27. …cont’d
• Since the bourgeoisie materially support the writers and
the painters:
owning the means of production as well as serving as
primary consumers—
the artist must be careful not to offend bourgeois
values.
• Anything offensive or challenging to the bourgeoisie
will simply not be published or sold.
• Any artist who wishes to criticize the bourgeoisie must
do so in a subtle way (satire, irony, etc.).
Source: Dobie(2012), (Hill, 2021) Mambrol(2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

28. Ideology
• In Marxist usage, ideology is what causes us to
misrepresent the world to ourselves.
• As for Marxism the basis of any society is its
economic organization, which then gives rise to
certain social relations –
• for instance, the class relations between capitalists
and workers in 19th C Capitalist economies.
(Hans Bertens: Literary Theory: The Basics, p-84)

29. .cont’d
• Ideology— the shared beliefs and values held in an
unquestioning manner by a culture—exerts a
powerful influence upon a culture.
• Ideology:
Consciousness and perceptions within a society
Often controlled by the ruling class
Determined according to what is in the ruling class's best
interests
Confuses the alienated groups
Creates false consciousness
Example: commodity fetishism (perceiving labor as
capital ~ a degradation of human life) as a form of
ALIENATION
Source: (Hill, 2021) Mambrol(2016). and Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.(2020)

30. Means of production
• A combination of the means of labor and the subject
of labor used by workers to make products
• Means of labor:
machines,
tools,
equipment,
 infrastructure, and "all those things with the aid of which
man acts upon the subject of labor, and transforms it”
• Subject of labor:
 raw materials and materials directly taken from nature
• Means of production produce nothing
• Labor power is needed for production to take place.

31. Base and superstructure
• Base: people with regard to “the social production
of their existence” forms the economic basis
• Superstructure: political + legal institutions +
religious, philosophical, and other ideas
• The base conditions the superstructure and the social
consciousness
• Reflexive: changes in one group often influence the other
• Source: (Hill, 2021) Mambrol(2016). and (Eagleton, 1976).

32. Base and superstructure

33. Exploitation
• Exploitation of an entire segment or class of society
by another.
• An inherent feature and key element of capitalism
and free markets.
• Profit gained by the capitalist = the value of the
product made by the worker + the actual wage that
the worker receives
• Paying workers less than the full value of their labor
• To enable the capitalist class to turn a profit
Karl Marx and (Eagleton, 1976).

34. The Fundamental Tenets of Marxist Criticism
• Economic and social condition affect all aspects of life
including art and literature.
• Art reflects the social and economic conditions (and class
conflict).
• Art aims at improving the social and economic conditions.
• Literature represent ideology.
• Marxist critics:
see it as a way to understand social structures.
explain class structure and relation in a literary work.
• The economic systems structure human societies.
• Economics is the base on which the superstructure of
social/political/ ideological realities is built.
Source: LeRoy and Beitz,(1974), Eward-Mangione (2020).
Eagleton, (1976, 1996).

35. …cont’d
• All human events and productions have specific
material/historical causes.
• Theoretical ideas can be judged to have value only
in terms of their concrete applications.
• Examine literature in its cultural, economic, and
political context
• Concerned with the social context of literary works,
pursuing
• Assume that all art is political.
Source: LeRoy and Beitz,(1974), Eward-Mangione (2020).
Eagleton, (1976, 1996).

36. …cont’d
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels forwarded that
Marxist Criticism based on the following claims:
1. The history of mankind, its social groups and
interrelations, its social interests, and ways of
thinking are extensively determined by the
changing mode of its material production.
2. The historical changes in the fundamental mode
of material production cause changes in the class
structure of society.
3. An ideology of the age helps to form the ‘human
consciousness that particular period.

37. Leninist Marxist Criticism
• Argued that literature must be an instrument of
PARTY.
• “Literature must become part of the organized,
methodical and unified labors of the Social-
democratic party”. Lenin
• Experimentation banned later.
• Art should serve politics.
• Steiner says, The Leninist Marxist Criticism insists
on the need for art to explicitly committed to the
political cause.

38. Marxism Leninism
predicted a spontaneous
revolution by the proletariat,
insisted on the need for
leadership by a vanguard party
of professional revolutionaries
predicted a
temporary dictatorship of the
proletariat,
established a permanent
dictatorship of the Communist
Party.
envisioned a revolution of
proletarians in industrialized
countries,
emphasized the revolutionary
potential of peasants in
primarily agrarian societies
(such as Russia).

39. Key Terms in Marxism Literary Theory
Key terms
Exploit
ation
Super
structure
Reification
Marginaliza
tion
Alienation
Capital
labor
Labor
Base
Hegemony
Class
Capital

40. ..cont’d
• Eward-Mangione (2020) stated that different key terms:
Terms Concept
Class: a classification or grouping typically based on income and
education
Alienatio
n
: a condition ascribed to individuals in a capitalist economy
who lack a sense of identification with their labor and
products
Base: the means (e.g., tools, machines, factories, natural resources)
and relations (e.g., Proletariat, Bourgeoisie) or production
that shape and are shaped by the superstructure (the
dominant aspect in society)
Exploitat
ion:
the difference between the value of production and what a
worker is paid by the owner
Marginal
ization:
placing lower classes and people of color in the margins
socially, economically, and politically

41. ..cont’d
Terms Concept
Hegemony: cultural, economic, social, and political dominance, or
what reality is for the majority of people within a given
culture
Superstruct
ure:
the social institutions such as systems of law, morality,
education, and their related ideologies, that shape and are
shaped by the base
Capitalism: the economic base which values private ownership and
profit for individuals
Labor: employees, workers
Capital: employers, owners, major investors
Reification: how people are turned into commodities useful in
market exchange

42. Foundational Questions of Marxist Criticism
• What classes, or socioeconomic statuses, are
represented in the text?
• Are all the segments of society accounted for or
does the text exclude a particular class?
• Does class restrict or empower the characters in
the text?
• How does the text depict a struggle between
classes, or how does class contribute to the conflict
of the text?
• How does the text depict the relationship between
the individual and the state?
• Does the state view individuals as a means of
production, or as ends in themselves?

43. …cont’d
• What role does class play in the work; what is the
author's analysis of class relations?
• How do characters overcome oppression?
• In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the
status quo; or does it try to undermine it?
• What does the work say about oppression, or are social
conflicts ignored or blamed elsewhere?
• Does the work propose some form of utopian vision as
a solution to the problems encountered in the work?
Source : Eward-Mangione (2020), Delahoyde (2021) and
Abrams (1999)

44. Marxism in Modern Literature
• Influence on Writers
Under the influence of Marxist theory, an author is
probably interested in examining:
a) History as Historical Materialism:
The author hopes to show how all human relations are at
root a class struggle between oppressor and oppressed,
and/or a struggle for control of the means of production.
b) Writing as a Means of Controlling Ideology:
Marxist theory suggests that if hegemony is maintained
through ideology, the oppressed must gain control of
their ideology.
Source:https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lectu
re%20Notes/marxism_in_modern_literature.htm

45. ….cont’d
• Influence on Readers and Critics
Under the influence of Marxist theory, a reader or critic is probably
interested in examining:
a) The Work as Ideology:
Marxism argues that any work of art functions either consciously
or unconsciously as ideology;
Wordsworth's Romanticism as a means through which the urban,
middle to upper-class English elite attempted to maintain
hegemony over the rural, agricultural peasant class;
b) As a Record of Historical Relations:
A Marxist influenced reading of, say a Jane Austen novel would be
interested in the role of women as the oppressed and the
negotiation of romantic relations and marriage as deeply, if not
entirely, influenced by a struggle for domination or freedom.
Source:https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture%20Notes/m
arxism_in_modern_literature.htm

46. …cont’d
• Generally, The Marxist sees Modernist art, then, as
historically conditioned.
• Modernism, in a word, has a profound connection with
the transition to the epoch of imperialism.
• We can concede that the strength of a good deal of
Marxisticism so far has been in its analysis of
content rather than of When it comes to form.
• Marxist must be concerned with the enormously
important formal innovations Modernism, perhaps
mainly with two questions in mind:
what is their value and significance as part of the entire
history of art?
 do they offer something that may some day become part of
equipment for socialist reality?
Source:https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture%20
Notes/marxism_in_modern_literature.htm

47. The Strengths of Marxism Literary Criticism
• Encourages a careful reading of the text.
• Doesn’t limit the reader to view text in isolate.
• It the belief that literature reflects this class struggle and
materialism.
• It looks at literature function about other aspect of super
status.
• It focuses on how literature can work as a force for social
change, or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions.
• It promotes the idea that literature should be a tool in the
revolutionary struggle.
• It attempt to classify the relationship of literary work to social
reality.
• It believes that the literary work always has a relationship to
social.
• It judges by how it represented the main struggle for power
going on that time, how it may influences theory struggle.

48. The Weaknesses of Marxism Literary Criticism
• Some people feel threatened by the focus on
“ideology”
• Dismisses the beauty of writing and does not allow
reader to simply enjoy text.
• Marxist literary theory only focused in one aspect
of the work being analyzed .
• It focus primarily on the socioeconomic divide
between classes (Proletarian vs bourgeoisie), which
can be restricted when analyzing a literary work.

49. Practical Examples
Animal Farm
• Class struggle happened because the class is made to define who
people are.
Mr. Jones and Napoleon – bourgeois
Other animals in the farm –proletariat
• It made the social system divided into majority and minority.
• The result of the divided society class was made the minority class
discriminated by the larger community or majority of the society.
• George Orwell Animal Farm novel frame the Russian post-
imperialism and satirically written to describe the struggle between
class, Marxist, Stalin, and Lenin in the late ’80s.
• Intrigue between one character and another is portrayed very
well.
• The dynamic story that shows a coup from the beginning to the end
of Imperialism capitalism portrayed by The Animalia is well
organized.
• A common struggle that leads them to think much harder to
achieve freedom is somehow admirable.

50. …cont’d
• Nonetheless after the end of Jones’s reign.
• The Animalia's lack of capability in managing the farm and
their dependence on the Pig’s capability to run the farm result
in a new order that makes the Animalia suffer.
• The result of this new order by the pigs impact the lives of the
farm.
• They were controlled by the pigs that extremely overruled the
farm by its commandment.
• According to this novel is that dictatorship is not acceptable in
this new modern world.
• As the equality endorsed by George Orwell to let people
know that Equality between proletariats is also considered a
critical need to them,
• In case of the bad situation that might happen if the
proletariats are chosen to lead the community.

51. Things Fall Apart
• The Igbo society is structured with different social stratification.
• In material structure, the ruling class is someone who has large
numbers of the barn of yam.
• In religiosity, the chief of priests and oracles becomes the ruling
class.
• The title is very important for society.
• The Igbo society is judged by his ability and worth, not by his
family or father.
• Women are placed at the bottom of this hierarchy.
• There is also social outcasts, who has social status as a slave and
do not have any social status.
• Class conflicts are derived from the clash of the oppressed class
and the ruling class.
• The oppressed class come to challenge the authority and the
power of the clan because the Igbo society denied their status.

52. …cont’d Things Fall Apart
• The coming of the white men also bring the conflict between the ruling
class and the oppressed class in Igbo society.
• The oppressed class takes the advantage of the white men to fight with the
ruling class.
• The white men use the soft method to convert the society to become
Christian and join with them.
• This novel also shows the same image and shows many aspects of Igbo
culture realistically.
• Nigeria has no king.
• There is the depiction of colonization that happened in Nigeria.
• The ways of the penetration of the white man were done in The ways of the
penetration of the white man was done in the Igbo land were multiform,
make force, diplomacy and military action and signed peace agreements.
• It is different in one place and another place.
• The colonization also brings Christianity.

53. Summarizing MC
• Marxist criticism place literary works with in
the context of class and assumptions about
class
• Major primes is – literature can viewed as
ideological
• It examines the effect of capitalism on labor,
productivity and economic development
• Religion is the opiate of the people- marx

54. • Historical Background
• Definition
• Key Theorist
• Kinds of Feminism
• Methods/techniques used
• Key Features
• Key Concepts/terms
• Question Asked
• Strengths and Weakness
• Practical Examples
Part Two: Feminist Literary Criticism
Outline

55. Background
• Feminist criticism grew out of the women’s
movement that followed World War II.
• The first wave of the feminist movement is usually
tied to the first formal Women’s Rights Convention
that was held in 1848.
• Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in
works of literature.
• Leading critic Elaine Showalter describes two
purposes of feminist criticism:
 Feminist critique: The analysis of works by
male authors, especially in the depiction of
women’s writing
 Gyno-criticism: The study of women’s writing
(Golban and Ciobanu, (2008) and Genova, Okoroegbe,
Kehinde and Lwuchukwu (n.d.). Knellwolf (2001). )

56. ...cont’d
• Feminist critics have been responsible for
recovering neglected works by women authors
through the ages and creating a canon of
women’s writing.
• A case in point is Kate Chopin.
• She was fairly widely published in the 1890s,
but her work was largely neglected by literary
critics until the 1960s, when Chopin was
“rediscovered” by feminist critics.
(Tyson, 2006). Genova, Okoroegbe, Kehinde and Lwuchukwu
(n.d.). Knellwolf (2001). )

57. Waves Feminist Theories
First wave: Women’s
Suffrage and The Seneca
Falls Convention-
Second wave: Women's
Liberation
Third wave: Who Benefits
From the Feminist
Movement?

58. First Wave Feminism
• The Feminine Phase (1840-1880)
• ‘a prolonged phase of imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant
tradition, and internalization of its standards of art and its views on social
roles’;
• It refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early 20th C in
the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
• The key concerns- education, employment, the marriage laws, and the
plight of intelligent middle-class single women.
• Over all goal: to improve the legal position for women in particular to gain
women the vote.
• Basic assumption:
 Men and women have separate, biologically determined roles and duties
in society.
Women work in the private sphere (the home), men in the public sphere.
Active until the First World War I
(Golban and Ciobanu, (2008), Napilkoski, (2020).Wulan and Hairni (2021))

59. …cont’d
• Women widely are considered to be:
Intellectually inferior
Physically weak
Emotional, intuitive, irrational
Suited to the role of wife's and mother
Women could not vote
They were not educated at school/universities and could only work
in manual jobs.
• A married women’s property and salary were owned by her
husband ape and physical abuse are legal within marriage
• Divorce available to men but far more difficult to women
• Women had no right to their children if they left a marriage
• Abortion was illegal.
(Golban and Ciobanu, (2008), Napilkoski, 2020).Wulan and Hairni
(2021))

60. …cont’d
• Fight for social and political equality
• Used Pen Names
• Women wrote in an effort to equal the intellectual
achievements of the male culture, internalized its
assumptions about female culture.
• Distinguishing sign of this period is the male
pseudonym became national characteristic of
English women writers
• American women during the same period adopted
super-feminine names like Fanny Fern, Grace
Greenwood.

61. Second Wave Feminism
• The Feminist Phase (1880-1920)
• ‘a phase of protest against these standards and values, including a
demand for autonomy’;
• Liberation movement
• Winning of Vote
• Came as a response to the experiences of women after World War
II.
• Enabled to reject the accommodating postures of femininity.
• Used Literature to dramatize the ordeals of wronged
womanhood e.g Elizabeth Gaskell, Frances Trollope.
• It dealt with inequality of laws and pioneered by Betty Friedan.
• Women achieved championed:
 abortion rights,
 reproductive freedom, and
other women’s health issues.
(Golban and Ciobanu, (2008), Napilkoski, 2020).Wulan and Hairni (2021))

62. …cont’d
• Basic assumptions:
Society is patriarchy
Women may have legal rights but they are still treated as
inferior.
Women should be equal to men in all respects.
• Women could attend school and university
• Women did not receive equal pay for the same work
• It was easier to gain a divorce but socially frown upon
• Rape and physically abuse within marriage were illegal
but husbands were rarely convicted.
• Abortion was still illegal
• Women’s body were objectified in advertising

63. Third Wave Feminism
• Female Phase- 1920 -----to Present
• ‘a phase of self-discovery, a turning inward freed from some
of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity’
• Women:
reject both imitation and protest
seem to be more equal to men
are no longer obligated to marry or have children, and marriage is
more equal.
• The legal system is better at protecting women’s right.
• It seeks to challenge or avoid what it seems the second wave's
"essentialist" definitions of femininity, which often assumed a
universal female identity and over-emphasized the
experiences of upper-middle-class white women.
• Third-wave feminists such as Elle Green often focus on
"micro-politics", and challenge the second wave's paradigm
as to what is, or is not, good for women.

64. …cont’d
• The movement that called as young feminist
• Less emphasis on the positive nature of ambiguity and differences
• Emphasizing collective action to effect changes and embrace the
diversity represented by various feminisms.
• They focused on a multicultural emphasis and strived to address
problems stemming from:
sexism,
racism,
social class inequality and
homophobia.
• Turn to female experience as the source of an autonomous art
• Extended the feminist analysis of culture to the forms and techniques
of Literature
• Redefined internal and external experiences

65. Basic concepts/Definitions
Feminism :
1. Theory of political ,
economic and social
equality of the sexes.
2. Organized activity
on the behalf of
women's right and
interest
3. Against gender
stereotypes and
gender-based
expectation
Feminist Literary criticism
1. Literary criticism informed by
feminist theory (politics of
women .
2. It uses feminist principles and
ideology to critique the
language of literature
3. This school of thought seeks to
analyze and describe the way in
which literature portrays the
narratives of male domination
by exploring the economic,
social political and
psychological forces embedded
with literature

66. ….cont’d
• Feminist theory is the support of equality for women and men.
• Although all feminists strive for gender equality.
• FC is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization
(Tyson, 2006).
• FC is the literary analysis that arises from the viewpoint
of feminism, ​feminist theory, and/or feminist politics (Eagleton,
1996.)
• FC is concerned with "how literature reinforce or undermine
the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression
of women" (Tyson, 2006).
• It looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal
(male-dominated) and aims to expose misogyny(hatred of
woman) in writing about women, which can take explicit and
implicit forms.

67. …cont’d
• In broad definition: it is women’s movement in
1960s to struggle for the equality of rights as social
class.
• In literature: feminism is related to the ways in
understanding literary works, in both production and
reception.
• “One is not born a woman; rather, one becomes a
woman”. Simone de Beauvoir
• It explores the bias in favor of the male gender in
literature, and which reexamines all literature from a
feminist point of view.

68. …cont’d
Terms
Feminist: a political position
referring to a woman striving for
an equality of right
Feminine: a set of
cultural characteristics
given by the society
Female: a
matter of
biology

69. ...cont’d
 Meaning is socially constructed.
 Texts have more than one interpretation
 Texts are commodities (products of society)
 Truth is relative, highly dependent on arbitrary categories of
difference, esp. those based on “sex” and “gender”
 Look for systems of containment; for evidence of
repression,
oppression,
suppression,
 subversion, & rebellion in texts by women;
 study women’s unique ways of understanding and writing about the
human condition.

70. Basic Premise
• It has two basic premises:
1. Women presented in literature by male writers from
male point of view.
2. Women presented in writing of female writers from
female point of view.
• It aims to understand the nature of inequality and
focus on analyzing gender equality and the
promotion of women’s right.
(Hairani, (2021))

71. The Three Main Areas of Study in FC
• Differences between men and women
• Women in positions of power and power
dynamics between men and women
• The female experience
(Source: Wulan and Hairani, (2021), Genova,
Okoroegbe, Kehinde and Lwuchukwu (n.d.),
and Knellwolf (2001)

72. Differences Between Men and Women
• One basic assumption of the feminist perspective is
that gender determines everything, including values
and the ways language is used.
• The canon of literature printed, marketed, and taught
in schools must be expanded to include the study of
genres in which women “traditionally” write:
journals, diaries, and personal letters.
• The differences in the topics or issues about which
men and women write and the differing viewpoints
from which men and women write must be noted.
• All views must be respected as equally valid.
Source: Wulan and Hairani, (2021), Genova, Okoroegbe,
Kehinde and Lwuchukwu (n.d.), and Knellwolf (2001)

73. Women in Positions of Power and Power Dynamics
between Men and Women
• Any evidence of the social, economic, and political exploitation
of women must be noted and confronted.
• The feminist critic:
checks the work to see whether female characters have power
and of what type of power it might be.
views literature as a means by which inequities can be identified,
protested, and possibly rectified.
will note the division of labor and economics between men and
women in the work being studied.
will note how male and female characters in the work interact with
one another in a variety of contexts.
Does the woman act subservient?
Does the man treat the woman like an adult?
Are males and females politically and economically equal?

74. The Female Experience
• A woman’s experience of life is different from a man’s.
• Examining what aspects of feminine life are included in
the work.
 Is the narrative point of view male or female?
How does the narrator—male or female—treat plot events
and other characters?
• The feminist critic rejects any application of male
standards to the female personality.
• The female personality must be judged independently
from the male personality and vice versa.
• Feminist critics examine and celebrate all portrayals of
the creative, life-giving role of femininity.
• Source: Wulan and Hairani, (2021), Genova,
Okoroegbe, Kehinde and Lwuchukwu (n.d.), and
Knellwolf (2001)

75. ..cont’d
• Women have traditionally been portrayed as dependent on
men, but feminists point out that men are dependent on
women for humanity’s most basic need birthing children.
• All evidence of feminine nurture, healing, life giving and
restoring are examined.
• Feminist theory is not fundamentally chauvinistic.
• Feminist critics explore literature for portrayals of the
concept that men and women are each incomplete without
the other.
• They do, however, reject suggestions of studying only
feminine “incompleteness.”
Source: Wulan and Hairani, (2021), Genova, Okoroegbe,
Kehinde and Lwuchukwu (n.d.), and Knellwolf (2001)

76. Theorist in Feminist Literary Criticism
Golban and Ciobano (2008) , Napikoski ( 2020) and Tyson
(2006) listed the following theorist :
 Fran Ansley
 Hélène Cixous
 Julia Kristeva
 Judith Butler
 Susan Bordo
 Virginia Wolf
 John Stuart Mill
 Simone de Beauvoir
Betty Friedan
 Elaine Showalter
 Sindu Gebru

77. Fran Ansley (1972)
• Ansley argues:
women absorb the anger that would otherwise be
directed at capitalism.
women’s male partners are inevitably frustrated by the
exploitation they experience at work and women are the
victims of this, including domestic violence.

78. Hélène Cixous (1937–)
• regards herself primarily as a poet (and playwright), and
only secondarily as a philosopher and literary critic.
• Cixous’s deconstruction of the masculine/feminine
opposition shows that, should feminists still dwell in binary
thought, their theoretical output will be counter-intuitive as
still entangled in patriarchal metaphysics.
• Cixous is primarily recognized in the Anglo-American
world for developing the Derridean inspired concept of
l’écriture féminine (‘feminine writing’),
• FW- A method of dealing with subjective difference in
writing and social theory.
• According to Cixous, writing is to be understood
psychoanalytically as rooted in sexuality.

79. ..cont’d
• Since man’s genital and libidinal economy is phallocentric
and singular, masculine writing (literature) is
‘phallogocentric and boring’:
men write the same old things with their ‘little pocket
signifier’ (the trio of penis/phallus/pen).
• Cixous conceives of bisexuality as the location within
oneself of difference, of both sexes; she contends that we are
all bisexual, but our primary bisexuality is perverted by
phallocentric culture.
• By way of consequence, writing should ultimately not be
masculine or feminine but in-between, bisexual.

80. Julia Kristeva (1941–)
• Julia Kristeva’s work has inspired a lot of discussion and
debate in Anglo-American feminist theory and criticism.
• Her theory of abjection deployed in explaining oppression
and discrimination,
• She focus on the body and the significance of the maternal
and pre-Oedipal (the ‘semiotic’) in the constitution of
subjectivity have engendered further scholarly elaboration.
• However, in so far as she appears to equate the female
body with motherhood, Kristeva has been suspected of
patriarchal essentialism.
Source: (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

81. Judith Butler (1956–):
• Highly influential American post-structuralist philosopher whose
writings address major issues in feminism, queer theory, political
philosophy and ethics.
• she advances the idea that gender (along with sex and sexuality) is
performative,
• It is culturally constructed through the repetition of stylized acts in
time.
• The performance of gender, sex, or sexuality is, however, naturalized
as an ontological ‘core’:
thus, she reconceives the sexed body as itself culturally
constructed by regulative discourse as male or female;
from this construction of binary sex as natural proceeds the
construction of the binary gender and heterosexuality as natural
too.
Source : (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

82. Susan Bordo (1947–)
• Focus in feminist and cultural studies is on the body.
• Bordo explores major issues in philosophical discourse (e.g.
rationality, objectivity, Cartesian dualism) to reflect on the
situation of the body within culture historically.
• Studies the impact of popular culture in shaping both an
ideal (normative) female body :
hardly ever attainable,
despite the plethora of practices aimed at the body,
 typical female disorders, which Bordo regards as
‘complex crystallizations of culture’.
Source: (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

83. Virginia Wolf
• Virginia Wolf is rightly considered the founder of modern feminist
literary criticism.
• Her feminist manifesto of literary criticism, a room of one's own (1929),
very few works register in historical accounts of its genesis.
• Woolf reflects on the situation of women writers over the centuries,
• Explores the effect of material conditions and patriarchal attitudes on
their intellectual and imaginative work.
• Women writers and intellectuals have not had the money, independence,
or material comforts necessary to create their best work;
• Women have served as supportive props to the male ego rather than
developing their own abilities
• Anger toward men and oppressive social conditions have tarnished the
writing of some women.
• An androgynous mind is necessary to the creation of great literature.

84. John Stuart Mill
• In 1869, John Stuart Mill with the help of his wife Harriet
Taylor Mill published The Subjection of Women, in it he
argued for equality between the sexes.
• He was able to draw off of some of the arguments his wife
made in her essay The Enfranchisement of Women, in
which she opened the door of favoring equality for both
men and women.
• He believes that:
 the moral and intellectual advancement from giving
women the opportunity to be considered equal would
translate to greater happiness for everyone involved.
all humans had the capability of being educated and
civilized, with which he argued women should be given
the right to vote.

85. ….cont’d
• Mill continues to argue that both men and women:
 should be able to vote to defend their rights and
be able to have the opportunity to stand on their own two feet morally
and intellectually, and
constantly used his position in Parliament to advocate for women's
suffrage
• Mill attacks many of the arguments that women are inferior at certain
activities.
• He claims that:
males are making an authoritative statement without evidence, an
argument solely based on speculation.
giving women this opportunity to figure out exactly what they were
capable of:
 would double the mass of mental faculties to serve humanity, and
could produce a great impact on human development.

86. Simone de Beauvoir
• Simone de Beauvoir played a large role in inequality
feminism with the publishing of her book The
Second Sex, broken into three parts.

87. Simone de Beauvoir: played a large role in inequality feminism with the publishing of
her book The Second Sex, broken into three parts.
In the first part,
"Destiny",
Part two,
"History",
Finally in part three,
"Myths",
discusses the
relationship of male to
female in a variety of
creatures before
comparing human
beings.
 This physiological
data along with
psychoanalytical data
help her conclude that
there was not a
historical defeat of the
female sex.
outlines the two factors
in the evolution of
women's condition:
participation in
production and freedom
from reproductive
slavery.
She compares being a
woman to being like an
animal, similar to the way
male animals dominated a
female.
 She discusses the perceived
"everlasting disappointment" of
women from a male heterosexual point
of view.
 She then comes back and discusses the
full reality of the situation to show the
discrepancies between perception and
reality.
 Throughout literary career, de Beauvoir
helped unravel some of the "myths"
associated with perceptions in gender
and set forth a strong message that men
and women should be treated equally
with equal rights.

88. Betty Friedan
• One of the most recognized equality feminists after
writing the book The Feminine Mystique,
• She discusses "the problem that has no name",
female unhappiness in the 1950s and 1960s.
• She was able to address many of the problems and
the widespread recognition allowed her to later
become president of the National Organization for
Women (NOW).
• She addressed the problem that women had
"wanting more than a husband, children, and a
home".

89. …cont’d
• Friedan discusses:
the societal expectations of raising children and how this
caused many women to not be able to do what they
wanted.
the problem of education and that many families solely
focused on education for the male children and women
were instead "assigned to be married to fulfill child-
bearing expectations".
• It was through the impact of this piece of literature
that women were finally given a voice to say it was
okay to not want to conform to societal expectations
and fight for equality of opportunities, choices,
marriage, education, and voting.

90. Elaine Showalter
• Elaine Showalter (born January 21, 1941) is an
American literary critic, feminist, and writer on
cultural and social issues.
• She is one of the founders of feminist literary
criticism in United States academia, developing the
concept and practice of gynocritics.
• Showalter has been a television critic for People
magazine and a commentator on BBC radio and
television

91. Sinidu Gebru:
• 1916-2009
• Pioneer Woman Writer,
• Feminist,
• Patriot,
• Educator, and
• Politician.
• Director of the first girl’s school
• Her works:
The empress Menan School cook book
Book of my heart

92. Types Feminism
Types of
feminism
Radical
feminist
Liberal
Feminist
Marxist-
feminist

93. Liberal Feminism
• It aims to achieve equal legal, political, and social rights for
women.
• It wishes to bring women equality into all public institution.
• 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.
• It believe that the main causes of gender inequality are
ignorance and socialization
• It do not believe that social institutions are inherently
patriarchal.
Sources: Hairani (2011),

94. ..cont’d
• They believe in a “March of Progress” view of gender
relations.
• This means that they believe that men and women are
gradually becoming more equal over time and that this trend
will continue.
• As evidence, liberal feminists point to various legal reforms
which promote sexual equality such as :
the sex discrimination act (1970),
 the fact that girls now outperform boys in education,
the fact that there are now equal amounts of men and women in
paid work.
• One criticism of the liberal feminist view is that it is
ethnocentric – it only really reflects the experiences of
white, middle-class women.

95. Marxist Feminism
• It 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 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 (Thompson, 2016).
• It argue the main cause of women’s oppression is capitalism.
• From a Marxist Feminist perspective:
the traditional nuclear family only came about with capitalism,
and
the traditional female role of housewife supports capitalism
 thus women are double oppressed through the nuclear family
and capitalist system.

96. …cont’d
• Women’s oppression within the nuclear family
supports capitalism in at least three ways:
Women reproduce the labor force
Women absorb anger
reserve army of cheap labor’
• the solutions to gender inequality are economic:
We need to tackle Capitalism to tackle Patriarchy.
Softer solutions include paying women for childcare and
housework
thus putting an economic value on what is still largely
women’s work, stronger solutions include the abolition of
Capitalism and the ushering in of Communism.

97. …cont’d
• They are more sensitive to differences between
women who belong to the ruling class and
proletarian families.
• It believe that there is considerable scope for co-
operation between working-class women and men
and that both can work together
• Criticism of Marxist Feminism is:
 that women’s oppression within the family existed before
capitalism and in communist societies.

98. Radical Feminism
• It was the cutting edge of feminist theory from approximately 1967-to
1975.
• It is the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from other
feminism
• It sprung out of the civil rights and peace movements in 1967-1968.
• They view the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of
oppression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and
economic class.
• It intent on social change, a change of rather revolutionary proportions.
• It see society and its institutions as patriarchal:
most of which is dominated and ruled by men
 men are the ruling class and women the subject class.
• Gender inequalities are the result of the oppression of women by men,
• Women are ‘an oppressed group.

99. ….cont’d
• Against Liberal Feminists, they argue that paid work
has not been ‘liberating’.
• Instead, women have acquired:
the ‘dual burden’ of paid work and unpaid housework and
 the family remains patriarchal – men benefit from women’s
paid earnings and their domestic labor.
• Some Radical Feminists go further arguing that women
suffer from the ‘triple shift’ where they have to do paid
work, domestic work, and ‘emotion work’ –are
expected to take on the emotional burden of caring for
children.
• Rape, violence, and pornography are also methods
through which men have secured and maintained their
power over women. (Andrea Dworkin, 1981).

100. ….cont’d
• Rosemarie Tong (1998) distinguishes between two
groups of radical feminists:
Radical-libertarian feminists believe that it is both possible
and desirable for gender differences to be eradicated, or at
least greatly reduced, and
 aim for a state of androgyny in which men and women are not
significantly different.
Radical-cultural feminists believe in the superiority of the
feminine.
It celebrate characteristics associated with femininity such as emotion
and are hostile to those characteristics associated with masculinity
such as hierarchy.
• Criticisms of Radical Feminism
Ignores the progress that women have made in many areas
e.g. work, controlling fertility, divorce
Too unrealistic – due to heterosexual attraction separatism is
unlikely

101. ….cont’d
• Golban and Ciobano added two types of
feminism
1. Existentialist Feminism and
2. Postmodern French feminism

102. Existentialist Feminism
• The existentialist precept that existence precedes
essence – that one is not born a woman, but
becomes one.
• De Beauvoir understands woman’ oppression as
deriving from her confected,
• man-made, ‘otherness’, which can be revealed at
play in the man/woman polar hierarchy:
‘man’ is the free, self-determining being intent on
defining the She considered herself the ‘midwife
of Sartre’s existential ethics rather than a thinker
in her own right’ (Bergoffen 2004 cited in(Golban
and Ciobanu, 2008)

103. …cont’d
Judith Butler (1986: 35) Cited in (Golban and Ciobanu,
2008) contends that, by ‘suggested that gender is an
aspect of identity gradually acquired’, de Beauvoir’
formulation ultimately adumbrates the feminist distinction
between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’.
Meaning of his existence; by way of consequence, he is the
one also to define ‘woman’ as ‘not-man’, hence the ‘other’,
the object whose meaning is determined for her.
Accordingly, de Beauvoir sees woman’s way to
emancipation, to become a self, a subject, like man – as
possible only through transcending the definitions, labels
and essences, but primarily her body, that limit her existence
as ‘immanence’

104. Postmodern feminism
• Postmodern feminism was initially referred to by
Anglo-American feminists as ‘French feminism’
because many of its exponents were women living
in France, especially Paris.
• They seek to avoid in their writings any re-
instantiations of phallogocentric thought :
 ideas ordered around an absolute word, logos or Truth,
that is male, or phallic, in style).
• They tend to be suspicious of any grand feminist
narratives aiming to provide an overarching
explanation for women’s oppression or a solution for
women’s liberation. (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

105. …cont’d
• Concern with plurality, multiplicity and difference, in so
far as postmodern feminists do not embrace any one
feminist position to extol its unique merits.
• Post modernism feminism gives the impression that equally
has been achieved and that feminist can now focus on
something else entirely.
• It further believes that woman could use their sexuality for
empowerment and assume traditional roles
• Believes that men, intern have had to change as women’s
role in society has changed (the new man).
• The patriarchal system has broken down.
(Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

106. Methods/techniques used in Feminist Criticism
• Identifying with female characters
• Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is read
• Deconstructing:
the women characters in novels, dramas, biographies, etc.,
especially if the author is male
how an individual’s gender influences how he or she reads and
interprets a text, and how the reader identifies with characters
depending on the reader’s gender
how women autobiographers and biographers of women treat their
subjects, and how biographers treat women who are secondary to
the main subject
• Critiquing language that enforces patriarchal values
• Observing the differences in the writing styles of men and women
• Noticing and unpacking differences in how men and women write.
Source: Napikoski (2020)

107. …..cont’d
• Examining:
 how relationships between men and women, including power relations, are
depicted in the text
 the text to find ways in which patriarchy is resisted or could have been resisted
• Reclaiming:
 women writers who are little known or have been marginalized or undervalued,
sometimes referred to as expanding or criticizing the canon—the usual list of
"important" authors and works.
 the "female voice" as a valuable contribution to literature, even if formerly
marginalized or ignored
• Analyzing:
 multiple works in a genre as an overview of a feminist approach to that genre:
for example, science fiction or detective fiction
 multiple works by a single author (often female)
 Analyzing relationships between the literary text and concepts about power and
sexuality and gender
Source: Napikoski (2020)

108. Features of Feminist Literary Theory
• The belief that men and women should have equal economic,
political rights and opportunities and to be treated with equality
and respect.
• Feminism rejects other sociological theories for being male
orientated and neglecting gender as a factor.
• Specific exploitation associated with the capitalist system.
• Liberal feminism- seeks equality within the law in areas such as
education and employment.
Societies should treat people according to merit and ensure fair
competition for job resources.
• Radical feminism -seeks alternative social structures for women.
Beliefs inequality exists due to biological differences between men and
women. Men have more dominance.
• Marxist feminism -emphasizes the importance of social class.
Women are not only exploited on a gender basis but also based on class.
Source: History.Com Editors. (2021). Quizlet Inc (2022) Tyson (2006)

109. Key Terms in Feminist Literary Theory
Womanist
Patriarchy
Sex/ gender system
Female/ feminine
Naturalization
Muted
Custodial culture
Phallolgenocentricism
Gendered language/sexist
language
Gender
Gender blind vs gendered
straight
Stereotype
Ecriture feminine
Paler feminine/ speaking as
woman
Gynotext/ androtext
Gynocentric
(Golban and Ciobanu, 2008)

110. Key Terms in Feminist Literary Theory
Key
Terms
Patriarch
y
The need for
masculine
Misogyny
Hysteria and
weakness
Misandry
Other
Domesticity
Female
competition
Male gaze
Women
as nature
Female
dichotom
y
Source: 1. Quizlt .com (2021), 2. Hughes (2002)
3. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/271/FeministCriticism.htm

111. ….cont’d
• Patriarchy: male dominated power structures
• Domesticity –A woman’s traditional place is within the home
• Female Dichotomy –Women are represented in the text in binaries
• Women as Nature –Women are often compared to nature. The
comparison is that they can both be nurturing and/or destructive
and wild. It is ‘up to men’ in both cases to tame, control, or conquer
nature and women.
• Hysteria and Weakness –Women are the ‘weaker sex’ and therefore
more emotional.
Hysteria conveniently enforced the idea that women are incapable
decision-makers (especially when it came to politics or
economics).
As hysteria was directly linked to uteruses, men were immune.

112. ..cont’d
• Ideology: dominant values, beliefs, ways of thinking
through which a culture understands reality
• Misogyny= hatred of women
• Misandry=hatred of men
• The Other: Woman has often been categorized as being
“other”
• Female Competition –All women are in competition with
each other for men.
• Male Gaze –Female characters (in poetry, prose, paintings,
plays, and especially films) are objects for the “male gaze”.

113. ..cont’d
• Womanist : Black feminist or woman of colour
committed to the survival and wholeness of all
people, male and female alike; term preferred by
Third World women to the white, First-World label
feminist.
• Patriarchy: literally, ‘the rule of the father’,
• Sex/gender system (Gayle Rubin): ‘gender is a
socially imposed division of the sexes’ (2006: 94
cited in (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008).
– biological specificities of sex (male/female) are
transformed into the social particularities of gender
(masculine/ feminine.

114. ..cont’d
• Female, feminine
• Naturalization: to present as natural fact something which
is in fact an ideological construction, e.g. gender identity
and roles as following of necessity from one’s biological sex
(in the sex/gender system).
• Muted (Edwin Ardener): women’s condition of scant or
non-existing discursive self-representation, as part of the
general picture of how social groups express or represent
themselves, linked to forms of subordination.
• Custodial culture (Cynthia Ozick): a set of opinions,
prejudices, tastes and values prescribed for a subordinate
group to perpetuate its subordination.

115. ..cont’d
• Phallogocentrism (Cixous; Irigaray): coinage that
blends the words:
– logo-centric (Derrida’s description of western culture as
organized around the idea of speech/the word as truth)
and
– phallocentric (to suggest that the structure of language is
male, (centered by the phallus),
– intended to articulate the feminist insight that western
cultural thought and structures are based on the primacy
of certain terms (valued in relation to masculinity),
– which appear as the first term in a series of binary
oppositions, e.g. male/female, order/chaos,
language/silence, presence/absence, good/evil.

116. ..cont’d
• Gendered language (sexist language): the condition of
language in patriarchy,
– its mirroring of the male standards and primacy in the
creation of words that are ‘unmarked’ for men-as-the-
norm,
– but ‘marked’ for women-as-deviant-from-the-norm, most
compellingly visible in the use of the so-called inclusive
he to refer to ‘humankind’ (male and female), e
• Gender neutral language: politically correct, non-sexist
way of mentioning human beings without using an inclusive
word, otherwise strictly denoting men, to refer to both men
and women; hence the substitutions: ‘mankind’ >
‘humankind’, inclusive

117. ..cont’d
• Gendered: the assumption of a position deemed
neutral, universal and objective, but which is in fact
male,
 it articulates men’s perspective and experience as
meaningful, and thereby excludes women from
meaningful positionality.
• Gender-blind (vs. gender-sighted): a category,
notion, etc. that is oblivious to the issue of gender,
it assumes there is a neutral, universal, objective position
from which to conceptualize and use it, when in fact this
is a covert male position.

118. ..cont’d
• Stereotype: a belief or idea of what a particular type
of person or thing is like
e.g. racial, sexual, cultural stereotypes;
racist stereotypes;
stereotypes of woman as good mother and cook;
stereotypes about the elderly.
• Écriture feminine (Cixous): ethical writing style,
which women in particular can access, that is able,
through a phonetic inscription of the feminine body,
its pulsions and flows, to embrace the difference of
the other rather than reducing it, as écriture
masculine does.

119. ..cont’d
• Parler femme / speaking (as) woman (Irigaray): a pun in French, parler
femme
which sounds like par le femmes (‘by women’)
 refers to a language of women created by themselves and situated
beyond the categories of language and femininity imposed by
patriarchy.
Irigaray contrasts the traditional ‘speaking like a woman’ with
‘speaking (as) woman’:
The former assumes the patriarchally imposed woman-positions.
one that is not in control nor in possession of knowledge or truth –
the very opposite to ‘speaking like a man’ (whatever one’s sex),
whose male stance entails precisely being assertive and dogmatic,
making claims.
Conversely, parler femme entails first and foremost occupying the
subject position as much in enunciation as in social practices, as the
maker of cultural and political reality.

120. ..cont’d
• Gynotext vs. androtext (Elaine Showalter): a
text/book written by a woman vs. a text/book written
by a man.
• Gynocritics (Elaine Showalter): a mode of feminist
criticism that studies women as writers, and
whose concerns are the history, styles, themes, genres
and structures of writing by women.
Showalter (1988) cited in Golban and Ciobanu (2008) :
has coined the term gynocritics to highlight the difference
of women’s writing.

121. Question Asked by Feminist Literary Criticism
Tyson (1999) explained the following question:
• How are women represented in any given work?
• Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s
gender?
• How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are
these relationships sources of conflict? Are these conflicts
resolved?
• Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?
• How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal
social forces that have impeded women’s efforts to achieve full
equality with men?
• What marital and behavioral expectations are imposed on the
characters? What effect do these expectations have?

122. ..cont’d
• If a female character were male, how would the story be
different (and vice versa)?
• How does the marital status of a character affect her
decisions or happiness?
• How are men represented in any given work?
• Does a given literary work promote or undermine women's
issues and social justice?
• What issues in a given literary work of specific importance
to women and women’s perspectives, values, categories,
epistemologies, and experiences exist?
• How are female perspectives and experiences represented in
literary works by writers of either gender?

123. ..cont’d
• How is the "feminine" component of traditional binary systems
regarded in any given work?
• How do a given work critique the dominant culture and its
institutions?
• How has a given work been read or misread by male critics?
• How does the gender of the reader or writer affect what work
means?
• What are unacknowledged gender biases in any literary work?
• What does it mean, in a given story or poem, to be a man or
woman?
• How is gender in a work constructed?
• Are gender roles in the work equal? traditional? nontraditional?
• How do characters in the work match or not match common
gender stereotypes?

124. Applications
• Barry (1995: 134) cited in (Golban and Ciobanu, 2008) suggests
the following checklist of feminist critical concerns. Feminists:
1. ‘rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by
women’.
2. ‘revalue women’s experience’.
3. ‘examine representations of women in literature by men and
women’.
4. ‘challenge representations of women as “Other”, as “lack”, as
part of “nature”’.
5. ‘examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life.
6. ‘recognise the role of language in making what is social and
constructed seem transparent and “natural”’.

125. ..cont’d
7. ‘raise the question of whether men and women are “essentially”
different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different’.
8. ‘explore the question of whether there is a female language, an
écriture féminine [or a means of parler femme], and whether this is
also available to men’.
9. ‘“re-read” psychoanalysis to further explore the issues of female and
male identity’.
10. ‘question the popular notion of the death of the author [Barthes,
Foucault], asking whether there are only “subject positions…
constructed in discourse”, or, on the contrary, the experience (e.g. of a
black or lesbian writer) is central’.
11. ‘make clear the ideological base of supposedly “neutral” or
“mainstream” literary interpretations’.

126. Strengths and Weakness of Feminist Literary Criticism
Strengths Weakness
Gave women a voice. This is a
strength as before the feminist
movement, sociology was regarded
as 'mae-stream' (male-dominated)
Maybe ignoring wider factors such
as class. This is a weakness because
feminists can fail to see the bigger
picture of inequality, such as the
class system.
raised awareness of gender issues. Ignores other social categories such
as disability, and nationality.
liberal- enormous contribution to
the emancipation of women, still
considered radical in some
countries that don’t offer basic
rights to women. Improved
quality of life due to educational
and legal reforms.
Liberal- fails to recognize that
working-class or black women
experience barriers to advancement
than white, middle-class women.
(dismissed as a white, bourgeoisie
movement.)

127. …cont’d
Strengths Weakness
Marxist- looks at how
capitalism affects
women's position in
society and has greatly
contributed to our
understanding of
women’s work.
Marxism- heavy reliance on economic
analysis.
• Cannot explain the existence of rape,
female infanticide, domestic abuse, etc.
• Fails to explain why it is specifically
women who occupy low-status
employment as capitalism would still
benefit with male workers paid low.
Radical- made women’s
work more clear and
visible, clearly
highlighting the
exploitation of women in
society.
Radical- do not analyze the way social class
interacts with patriarchy ie big difference
between the degree of sexism experienced by
bourgeoisie women in comparison to
proletariat women.

128. Criticism on Feminist Literary theory
Mar
xist
1.– Ignores other sources of inequality
such as sexual violence.
2. Patriarchal systems existed before
capitalism, in tribal societies for
example.
3. The experience of women has not
been particularly happy under
communism.

129. Criticism on Feminist Literary theory
Liberal 1. Based upon male assumptions and norms such as
individualism and competition, and encourages
women to be more like men and therefor deny the
‘value of qualities traditionally associated with
women such as empathy.
2. Liberalism is accused of emphasising public life at
the expense of private life.
3. Radical and Marxist Feminists – it fails to take
account of deeper structural inequalities
4. Difference Feminists argue it is an ethnocentric
perspective – based mostly on the experiences of
middle class, educated women.

130. ..cont’d
Radical 1. The concept of patriarchy has been criticised for
ignoring variations in the experience of oppression.
2. Some critics argue that it focuses too much on the
negative experiences of women, failing to recognise
that some women can have happy marriages for
example.
3. It tends to portray women as universally good and
men as universally bad, It has been accused of man
hating, not trusting all men.

131. Practical Examples of Feminist Literary Criticism
• Things Fall Apart
• At first glance, the role of women in Chinua Achebe's
Things Falls Apart may appear to be unfairly limited in
terms of their authority and power.
• Upon delving beneath this deceiving surface, one can
see that the women of the clan hold some very powerful
positions:
spiritually as the priestess and the sacred women,
symbolically as the earth goddess, and
 literally as the nurturers of the Ibo people,
 the helpers of husbands in farming as well as the caretakers
of yam crops, and
the mothers and educators of the Ibo children.

132. Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale
• The main character is Isabelle Rossignol, who has a
big ambition to fight against the Nazis.
• She is a rebellious, passionate, brave, adventurous,
and rude woman.
• In struggling to fight against the Nazi, she did some
actions such as:
joining the France Resistance,
distributing “Terrorist Paper,”
helping the allies to escape from Nazi’s territory,
changing her name and starting guerilla across the
mount, becoming a political prisoner, and
 surviving when the SS agent tortures her in prison.

133. Vergina Wolf- Room of One’s own
• Form: Extended essay
• Woolf reflects on the situation of women writers over
the centuries,
• explores the effect of material conditions and
patriarchal attitudes on their intellectual and
imaginative work
• Women writers and intellectuals have not had the
money, independence, or material comforts necessary to
create their best work;
• women have served as supportive props to the male ego
rather than developing their own abilities
• anger toward men and oppressive social conditions have
tarnished the writing of some women
• an androgynous mind is necessary to the creation of
great literature.

134. Summarizing Feminism

135. Marxist vs Feminist Literary criticism
Similarities
• it investigates how literature can work as a force for social
change, or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions.
• both are sociological theory
• Marxist feminism analyzes the ways in which women are
exploited through capitalism and the individual ownership
of private property
• The feminist theory coincides with Marxism by relating
the division of labor to the expectation accruing from
gender roles.
• Both Marxist and feminist theories advocate a revolution.
• Alienation plays a critical role in both feminist and Marxist
theories.

136. Marxist vs Feminist
Marxist Feminist
Class struggle Recognition and critique of male
supremacy with effort to change
Based on economic development Sociopolitical protest movement better
treatment for women
Class conflict between the working class Patriarchal gender role harm by creating
artificial reflection of social behavior
• The Marxist concept of ideology is a
word to describe a set of ideas and
beliefs that are dominant in society and
are used to justify the power and
privilege of the ruling class.
• ideology is also used to describe an
official set of beliefs and ideas
associated with a political system or the
world-view associated with a religion.
Ideology: dominant values, beliefs, ways
of thinking through which a culture
understands reality

137. Marxist vs Feminist
Marxist Feminist
WHAT MARXIST CRITICS DO:
1. Make a division between the
“overt” (manifest or surface)
and “covert” (latent or hidden)
content of a literary work
2. Relate the context of a work to
the social-class status of the
author
3. Explain the nature of a whole
literary genre in terms of the
social period which “produced”
it
WHAT FEMINIST CRITICS DO
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”)

138. Marxist vs Feminist
Marxist Feminist
WHAT MARXIST CRITICS DO:
4. Relate the literary work to the social
assumptions of the time in which it is
“consumed” (or read, viewed…)
5. Look for symbols that create or reveal
an :
• “individual versus exploitive system”
theme
• “oppressive culture” theme
• “individual as dehumanized,
mechanized,—only serving the larger
cause; only producing for ‘greater
good’” theme
6. Evaluate the systems of, in, around,
about, near the exhibit
WHAT FEMINIST CRITICS DO
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)

139. • The Emergence of Post-colonial
Criticism
• Theoretical Postulations
• Principles and Issues of Concern
• Key Terms
• Questions
• Key theorists
• Literary works
• Strengths and Weakness
• Practical Examples
Part Two: Post Colonial Literary Criticism
Outline

140. The Emergence of Post-colonial Literary Criticism
• Emerged in the 1990’sEmerged in the 1990’s
• Undermines universalist claims
• Universal claims disregard difference
• Regional
• National
• Cultural
• Social
• White
• Eurocentric norms should not be privileged
source: Balogun (2011),

141. …cont’d
• In the words of Jide Balogun (2011),
• It as a literary theory emerged in the late 19th century and thrived
throughout the 20th century.
• It is a literary approach that gives a kind of psychological relief to
the people (the colonized) for whom it was born.
• The focus is to expose the mechanism and the evil effect(s) of that
monster called colonialism on the colonized.
• It sees literature as an avenue to probe into the history of society by
recreating its experience with the mind of forestalling the repetition
of history.
• It denotes a period of recovery after colonialism as well as a
signification of its ongoing cultural aftermath.
• Emphasizing its ideological predilection, Kehinde argues that:
• Postcolonial African novelists use their novels to facilitate the
transgression of boundaries and subversion of hegemonic rigidities
previously mapped out in precursor literary canonical texts about
African and her people.‘

142. …cont’d
• Post Colonialism
• Post+ Colonialism
• Post = “after or “behind”

143. To Achieve Postcolonial Perspective
• Steps:
• First step for the “colonized” is to reclaim their own
past their own past
 i.e.. History did not begin with the Europeans
• Second step is to erode colonialist ideology that
devalued their past that devalued their past

144. Orientalism
• Filled with anonymous masses of people (not
individuals)(not individuals)
• Actions determined by instinct vs. logic
• Their reactions are determined by racial
considerations rather than individual circumstance

145. Key Theorist
• Frantz Fanon
• Fanon is one of the earliest writers associated with
post-colonialism.
• He analyzed the nature of colonialism and those
suggested by it.
• He described colonialism as a source of violence
and offered a less bright and more violent
prescription for moving beyond the colonial
mindset.
• He argues that previously colonized people would
remain hybrid with a miserably schizophrenic
identity they revolt violently against their identity.

146. Gayatri Spivak
• In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, 1987
• Indian theorist, philosopher & Professor at
Columbia University
• Famous Essay: Can the Subaltern Speak?
• Translator of Derrida’s De la grammatologie (Of
Grammatology)
• Spivak draws our attention to that large majority of
the Colonized that has left no mark upon history
because it could not, or was not allowed to, make
itself heard
• Spivak – first postcolonial theorist with a fully
feminist agenda

147. Homi Bhabha
• The Location of Culture, 1994
• Indian Postcolonial theorist
• What happens in the cultural interaction between the colonizer and the colonized?
• Colonizers point of view
• More benign
• They remain their civilized and disciplined European selves even in the most trying
circumstances
• Their presence affects the natives (not the reverse)
• Bhabha the encounter effect:
 Colonialism- a radically unsettling, affective experience of marginality
 Indeterminacy and fragmentation
 Lacan’s views of the way in which identity gets constructed
• He involves analysis of nationality, ethnicity, and politics with the poststructuralist
idea of identity and indeterminacy, defining post-colonial identities as shifting,
hybrid construction.

148. …cont’d
• Edward Said
Orientalism, 1978; Culture and Imperialism, 1994
• Kamau Brathwaite
The History of the Voice, 1979
• Dominick LaCapra
The Bounds of Race: Perspectives on Hegemony and
Resistance, 1991

149. Basic concept of Post Colonialism Literary Criticism
• What are colonialism, post-colonialism, and their application
of terms and theories?
• Colonialism: the term colonialism refers to the state of being
a colony.
• It is driven from the Latin “Colonia” farm or settlement.
• It is also shared a common root with the world culture
through Latinin ‘colere’ (past, part, culture; meaning to grow)
• It also refers to the practice by which a powerful country
controls another country or other countries.
• It involves two aspects:
the deconstruction or deliberate undervaluing of a people’s culture
the domination of a people’s language by that of colonizing nation)
Genova, et.al , O.(n.d.).

150. …cont’d
• Neo-colonialism: refers to a new style of colonialism
and generally means the exercise of international power
through economic and commercial rather than military
means.
• Post-colonialism: the period following the decline of
colonialism.
The literary theory deals with the reading and writing of
literature previously or currently which deals with
colonization and colonized people.
• This period mainly focused on:
literature by literature sing culture distort the experience and
realities and inscribes the inferiority of the colonized people.
Literature by colonized people attempts to articulate their
identity and realm of their past.

151. Principles and Issues of Concern
• Post-colonialism on race relations and effect of racism and
combating the residual effect of colonialism on culture.
• Illegitimating ideas of establishing power through conquest
• Building A national identity
• Demonstrating the virginity of colonized place
• Discussing issues of otherness, resistance, opposition,
mimicry aiming at establishing the value of human freedom,
liberty, identity, and individuality
• Celebrating their culture’s ancient yet transformed
heterogeneous and at the same time integrating and
mingling.

152. Characteristics of Postcolonial Criticism
• An awareness of representation of non-
Europeans as exotic or ‘Other’
• Concern with language
• Some conclude the colonizer's language is
permanently tainted, to write in it involves
acquiescence in colonial structures
• Emphasis on identity as doubled or unstable
(identify with colonizer and colonized)4.
Stress on cross cultural interactions

153. Stages of Postcolonial Criticism
• Phase 1: Analyze white representation of
colonial countries…uncover bias
• Phase 2: Postcolonial writers explore selves
and society(The empire writes back)

154. What Postcolonial Critics Do?
• Reject claims of universalism
• Examine representation of other cultures
• Show how literature is silent on matters of
imperialism and colonialism
• Foreground questions of diversity and cultural
difference
• Celebrate ‘cultural poly vancy’ (belonging to more
than one culture)
• Assert that marginality, plurality and
• ‘Otherness’ are sources of energy and potential
change

155. Basic Tenets of Post-colonial theory
• Assumptions:
1. Colonialism is a powerful, usually destructive
historical force that shapes not only the political
futures of the countries involved but also the
identities of colonized and colonizing people.
2. Successful colonialism depends on a process
of “othering” the people colonized.
That is, the colonized people are seen as
dramatically different from and less than the
colonizers.

156. ..cont’d
3. Because of this, literature written in
colonizing cultures often distorts the
experiences and realities of colonized
people.
Literature written by colonized people
often includes attempts to articulate
more empowered identities and reclaim
cultures in the face of colonization.

157. Post-colonial theory: Strategies
1. Search the text for references to colonization or to
currently and formerly colonized people.
In these references,
how are they colonized people portrayed?
How is the process of colonization portrayed?
2. Consider what images of “others” or processes of
“othering” are present in the text.
 How are these “others” portrayed?
3. Analyze how the text deals with cultural conflicts
between the colonizing culture and the colonized or
traditional culture.

158. Key terms in post-colonial Literary Theory
List of post colonial key terms
 Colonialism
 Post colonialism
 Ambivalence
 Colonial education
 Mimicry
 Alterity
 Ideology
 Diaspora
 Cultural Oppression
 Colonial Ideology
 Hybrid
 History
 Nation
 Race
 Neocolonialism
 Double consciousness
 Other
 Exotic
 Mapping
 Hegemony
 Subaltern

159. ..cont’d
• These key terms are as follow:
The colonizer vs. the colonized
white and western superiority vs, colored and colonial
inferiority
black vs. white
east vs. west
center vs. margins
self vs. other
standards vs. varieties
literacy vs. illiteracy
slave vs. master absences vs presences
identity vs differences
foreground vs background
foreigner vs natives

160. ..cont’d
• Colonialism: the process of acquiring political control
of a country, affecting the economics, language, and
culture of the colonized country
• Post-Colonial: Studies an area of study that focuses
on the history of colonialism and its effects on
colonized peoples and their culture, art, and literature
• Decolonization: the dismantling of colonialism and,
sometimes, of colonial structures in countries
previously colonized by European countries
• Neocolonialism: Neocolonialism refers to the
continuing economic dominance and exploitation of the
“politically-free” Third World countries by the
European imperial powers.
Eward-Mangione (2012)

161. ..cont’d
• Cultural Oppression = the colonizing country’s control
of language, religion, knowledge, communication,
social codes, and customs.
• Colonial Ideology = the belief system of the invading
country which holds that the indigenous people are
inferior or less than fully human.
 (They are demonic or exotic “others.”)
This ideology (explicitly and implicitly) marks the colonizer
as “the center” and the subjugated person as “the margin.”
• Colonial Subjects = colonized peoples who do not
resist subjugation because they have internalized the
oppressor’s ideology.
– I.e., they actually come to believe that they themselves are
inferior and the oppressor is superior.

162. ..cont’d
• Othering: Othering involves two concepts — the “Exotic Other”
and the “Demonic Other,”
The Exotic Other represents a fascination with the inherent dignity and
beauty of the primitive/undeveloped other, as delineated
Demonic Other is represented as inferior, negative, savage and evil as is
described in novels.
 Ideology: "a system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some
social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently
true" (Bordwell & Thompson 494)
• Hegemony: the power of the ruling class to convince other classes
that their interests are the interests of all, often not only through
means of economic and political control but more subtly through
the control of education and media.
• Magical realism: the adaptation of Western realist methods of
literature in describing the imaginary life of indigenous cultures
who experience the mythical, magical, and supernatural in a
decidedly different fashion from Western ones.
Source: Mambrol (2016 )

163. ..cont’d
• Alterity: "the state of being other or different"; the political,
cultural, linguistic, or religious other. The study of how one
group makes themselves different from others.
• Colonial education: the process by which a colonizing
power assimilates either a subaltern native elite or a larger
population to its way of thinking and seeing the world.
• Ambivalence: the ambiguous way in which colonizer and
colonized regard one another.
• Mapping: the mapping of global space in the context of
colonialism was as much prescriptive as it was descriptive.
Maps were used to assist in the process of aggression, and
they were also used to establish claims.
• Diaspora: diaspora refers to people who have been displaced
or dispersed from their homelands, and who possess and share
a collective memory and myth, and the nostalgic reminiscence
of “home” (“imaginary homelands,”
Source: Mambrol (2016 )

164. ..cont’d
• Hybridity: Hybridity commonly refers to the creation
of new transcultural forms within the context zone
produced by colonization.
• Double Consciousness: is the internal conflict
experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an
oppressive society.
• Subaltern: Subaltern is a term introduced by Antonio
Gramsci to refer to the working class, he
• It designates and identifies the colonial populations who
are socially, politically, and geographically excluded
from the hierarchy of power of an imperial colony and
from the metropolitan homeland of an empire.
Source: Mambrol (2016 )

165. ..cont’d
• Mimicry: Mimicry demonstrates an ambivalent
relationship between the colonizer and the colonized..
• History: Retrieving history for a postcolonial culture
invariably includes an intense awareness that native
history without colonial contamination is not possible..
• Nation: aggregation of people organized under a single
government.
• Race: race is a concept that has been the basis of
discrimination and disempowerment.
• Exoticism: the process by which a cultural practice is
made stimulating and exciting in its difference from the
colonizer’s normal perspective.
Source: Mambrol (2016 )

166. Methodological
• Post colonial theory tends to be dominated by
the theoretical discourse associated with post
modernity /Deconstruction

167. Questions Asked by post-colonial Literary Criticism
• How does the literary text represent aspects of
colonial oppression?
• What does the text reveal about the problematics of
post-colonial identity, including the relationship
between personal and cultural identity and such
issues as double consciousness and hybridity?
• What person(s) or groups does the work identify as
"other" or stranger? How are such persons/groups
described and treated?
• What does the text reveal about anti-colonialist
resistance's politics and/or psychology?

168. …cont’d
• What does the text reveal about the operations of
cultural difference - how race, religion, class,
gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and
customs combine to form individual identity - in
shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the
world in which we live?
• How does the text respond to or comment upon the
characters, themes, or assumptions of a canonized
(colonialist) work?
• Are there meaningful similarities among the
literature of different post-colonial populations?

169. ….cont’d
• How does a literary text in the Western canon reinforce
or undermine colonialist ideology through its
representation of colonialization and/or its inappropriate
silence about colonized peoples?
• Where and when is the work set—in a colony, a former
colony, or a country that has gained its independence
from Great Britain Spain, France, or another political
power?
• How does the text depict relations between the
colonizer and the colonized?
• What principles of colonialism operate in the text? Do
colonial powers usurp land, exploit the economy or
environment, or enslave the indigenous population?
• How do the colonial conflicts and politics of the text
affect its meaning?

170. Literary works in Postcolonial Criticism
• The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Franz Fanon,
• Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said,
• In Other Worlds (1987) by Gayatri Spivak,
• The Empire Writes Back (1989) by Bill Ashcroft et
al,
• Nation and Narration (1990) by Homi K Bhabha,
and
• Culture and Imperialism (1993) by Edward Said.

171. …cont’d
• Postcolonial critics reinterpret and examine the
values of literary texts, by focusing on the contexts in
which they were produced and revealing the colonial
ideologies that are concealed within.
• Such approaches are exemplified in:
 Chinua Achebe’s rereading, of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,
Edward Said’s rereading of Jane Austen’s Mansfield
Park, Sara Suleri‘s rereading of Kipling’s Kim,
Homi K Bhabha’s rereading of Forster’s A Passage to India.
• They seek to identify the gaps and fissures within the
discourse that provide the native with means of
resistance and subversion, and the dissenting colonial
with means of articulating opposition.

172. Criticism
• Fixation on national identity
• The concentration of postcolonial studies upon the
subject of national identity has determined it is
essential to the creation and establishment of a
stable nation and country in the aftermath of
decolonization; yet indicates that either an
indeterminate or an ambiguous national identity has
tended to limit the social, cultural, and economic
progress of a decolonized people.