Presented by
Samuel Jay C.
Pasia
FEMINISM AS AN
APPROACH TO
LITERARY CRITICISM

The
Underlying
Principle
THE FEMINIST
THEORY

 Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical
or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature
of gender inequality.
 Feminist researchers embrace two key tenets:
 (1) their research should focus on the condition of women in society,
and
 (2) their research must be grounded in the assumption, that women
generally experience subordination.
THE FEMINIST THEORY

The Roots
HISTORY OF FEMINIST
HISTORY

 Feminist theories first emerged as early as 1792 in publications
such as “The Changing Woman”, “Ain’t I a Woman”, “Speech
after Arrest for Illegal Voting”, and so on. “The Changing
Woman” is a Navajo Myth that gave credit to a woman who, in
the end, populated the world.
 In 1851, Sojourner Truth addressed women’s rights issues
through her publication, “Ain’t I a Woman.” Sojourner Truth
addressed the issue of women having limited rights due to
men's flawed perception of women. Truth argued that if a
woman of color can perform tasks that were supposedly
limited to men, then any woman of any color could perform
those same tasks.
HISTORY OF FEMINIST THEORY

 After her arrest for illegally voting, Susan B. Anthony gave a
speech within court in which she addressed the issues of
language within the constitution documented in her
publication, “Speech after Arrest for Illegal voting” in 1872.
Anthony questioned the authoritative principles of the
constitution and its male gendered language.
 She raised the question of why women are accountable to be
punished under law but they cannot use the law for their own
protection (women could not vote, own property, nor
themselves in marriage). She also critiqued the constitution
for its male gendered language and questioned why women
should have to abide by laws that do not specify women.
HISTORY OF FEMINIST THEORY

 Nancy Cott makes a distinction between modern feminism and
its antecedents, particularly the struggle for suffrage. In
the United States she places the turning point in the decades
before and after women obtained the vote in 1920 (1910–1930).
 She argues that the prior woman movement was primarily
about woman as a universal entity, whereas over this 20 year
period it transformed itself into one primarily concerned with
social differentiation, attentive to individuality and diversity.
New issues dealt more with woman's condition as a social
construct, gender identity, and relationships within and
between genders.
HISTORY OF FEMINIST THEORY

 The resurgence of feminist activism in the late 1960s was
accompanied by an emerging literature of what might be
considered female associated issues, such as concerns for the
earth and spirituality, and environmentalism.
 Feminist psychologists, such as Jean Baker Miller, sought to
bring a feminist analysis to previous psychological theories,
proving that "there was nothing wrong with women, but rather
with the way modern culture viewed them."
HISTORY OF FEMINIST THEORY

The Main
Topic
THE FEMINIST
LITERARY CRITICISM

 Lisa Tuttle has defined feminist theory as asking "new
questions of old texts." She cites the goals of feminist
criticism as:
 (1) To develop and uncover a female tradition of writing,
 (2) to interpret symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be
lost or ignored by the male point of view,
 (3) to rediscover old texts,
 (4) to analyze women writers and their writings from a female
perspective,
 (5) to resist sexism in literature, and
 (6) to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style.
THE GOALS

 Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by
feminist theories or politics. Its history has been varied, from
classic works of female authors such as George Eliot, Virginia
Woolf, and Margaret Fuller to recent theoretical work in
women's studies and gender studies by "third-wave" authors.
THE FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM

 In the most general, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s
was concerned with the politics of women's authorship and
the representation of women's condition within literature.
 Since the arrival of more complex conceptions of gender and
subjectivity, feminist literary criticism has taken a variety of
new routes. It has considered gender in the terms of Freudian
and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as part of the deconstruction of
existing power relations.
THE FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM

 Grew out of women's movement following WW II, this
approach analyzes the representation of women in literature.
Though the projects of individual critics differ, there is
general agreement that interpretation of literature involves
critique of patriarchy.
 Patriarchy = ideology that privileges masculine ways of
thinking/points of view and marginalizes women politically,
economically and psychologically.
HISTORY OF FEMINIST LITERARY
CRITICISM

 For some (French influence), project of interpretation is to
expose patriarchal nature of language itself. This involves
usage that denigrates or ignores women. It also includes the
deeper view that a masculine style of language has suppressed
a feminine one.
 Women need to assert a feminine language. What would this
be like? Some have argued that it would be more fluid, less
straightforward and logical, more perceptual, open to ongoing
semiosis (For what this may look like, read Virginia Woolf's
short story "The Mark on the Wall.")
HISTORY OF FEMINIST LITERARY
CRITICISM

 Some authors (American) explore texts in detail,
demonstrating patriarchical patterns, or the complex response
of women writers to their own authorial status.
 Some explore challenges to a literary canon that is so
dominated by men. This means the insertion of ignored
female writers (e.g. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
into the canon. It also entails the study of a literary tradition
of women writers.
 In the sense that this criticism often explores less what the
text overtly says but what it hides (e.g. unquestioning attitude
toward ideologically entrenched ideas about women) this
criticism counts as an example of a "hermeneutics of
suspicion."
FEMINIST LITERARY STYLE

People
Behind the
Critic
MAJOR
AUTHORS/CRITICS

 Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792);
 John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869);
 Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845);
 Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929);
 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949);
 Mary Ellman, Thinking about Women (1968);
 Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1969);
 Judith Fetterley, The Resisting Reader (1978);
 Elaine Showalter, A Literature of Their Own (1977); and
 Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic
(1979)
MAJOR AUTHORS/CRITICS AND THEIR
WORKS

In a
Nutshell
FEMINIST IDEOLOGY

 Dominant values, beliefs, ways of thinking through which a
culture understands reality.
 Similar to the phrase "cultural mythology," it usually
represents in tacit fashion the prevailing views of a particular
class.
 Examples of ideology relevant to American culture: gender
roles, value of capitalism, constitutional rights protecting
individual liberties, Protestant work ethic, Rocky Balboa . . .
FEMINIST IDEOLOGY

HERMENEUTICS OF
TRUST VS.
HERMENEUTICS OF
SUSPICION

 Interpretive approaches that lend credence to authorial or
rhetorical intentionality, that concern themselves with laying
bare the verbal sense in all of its dynamics.
 Examples: formalism, reader-response
HERMENEUTICS OF TRUST

 involves a resistance to author's intentions or textual design to
unearth hidden ideologies or aporia (anomalies). Less what
the text says; more what the text hides.
 Examples: Deconstruction, Feminist Literary Criticism,
Marxist literary criticism
HERMENEUTICS OF SUSPICION

ILLUSTRATIVE
EXAMPLE

 Kent, Susan Kingsley. Making Peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar
Britain. Princeton, N.J. 1993
 ^ Mitchell, Juliet. Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Freud, Reich, Laing, and Women.
New York 1975
 ^ Stocking, George W. Jr. After Tylor: British Social Anthropology, 1888–1951.
Madison, Wisconsin 1995
 ^ "Le Deuxième Sexe (online edition)".
 ^ Moi, Toril. What is a Woman? And Other Essays. Oxford 2000
 ^ Bergoffen, Debra B. The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir: Gendered
Phenomenologies, Erotic Generosities. SUNY 1996 ISBN 0-7914-3151-7
 ^ Sullivan, Shannon. The work of Simone de Beauvoir: Introduction Journal of
Speculative Philosophy 2000 14(2):v
 ^ Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution
New York 1976
 ^ French, Marilyn. Beyond Power: On Women, Men, and Morals. New York 1985
 ^ Reed, Evelyn. Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family.
New York, 1975
 ^ a b http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.or
REFERENCES