Presented By Saliha Awan Nabeeha Malaika Fatima Institute. Lahore Garrison University LGU Session 2017-21

1. FEMINISM AND
FEMINIST CRITICISM
PRESENTED BY:
The students of BS English/Fall 2017.
Saliha Awan (017)
Malaika Fatima (012)
Nabeeha (022)
Lahore Garrison University (LGU)

2. CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Origin
 Waves of feminism
 Elements
1. Women's oppression in patriarchal society
2. Place of women in literature
3. Cultural discrimination against women
 Controvertial Quotes by various figures against
women(gender and equality )
 Routledge (Susan Heckman)
 The Second Sex Book by Simone de Beauvoir
 Conclusion
 References

3. Introduction
• Feminism is concerned with
1. Politics of women's authorship
2. Representation of women's
condition in literature
• Range of social movements, political
movements, and ideologies that aim to
define, establish, and achieve the
political, economic, personal, and social
equality of the sexes.

4. Origin Of Feminism
 Derived from classical works of
19th century women authors
George Eliot(presented women as
an ideal product)
Margaret Fuller
(considered as a first major feminist
in history of 19th century)

5. Feminist Criticism
 Feminist Criticism is a form of
literary criticism that is based on
feminist theory.
 It is concerned with the politics of
feminism
 Aims to
a. Reinterpret old texts
b. Establish importanceof women's
writing

6. Waves Of Feminism
1. First wave of feminism (late
1700s-early 1900s)
2. Second wave of feminism(early
1960s-late 1970s)
3. Third wave of feminism(early
1990s-Present)

7. Major Concerns Of Feminist
Theory
1. Women's oppression in
patriarchal society
2. Place of women in literature
3. Cultural discrimination against
women

8. Quotes By Various Figures
Against Women (Equality And
Gender)
 Nature intended women to be our slaves.they
are our property..what a mad idea to demand
equality for women. (Napoleon Bonaparte)
 Literature can not be the business of a woman's
life and it ought not to be. the more she is
engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure
will she have for it,even,any recreation. (Robert
Southey)
 Woman is a slave whom we must be clever
enough to set upon a throne. (Honore de
Balzac)
 Jane Austen's novels are vulgar in tone, sterile
in artistic invention...without genius, wit or
knowledge of the world. never was life so

9. Quotes By Various Figures
Against Women (Equality And
Gender) The very idea of womanhood is a storm of
hair...with a greedy little mouth
somewhere behind the mirage of beauty
 An artist most essential quality is masterly
execution which is a kind of male gift, and
especially mark off men from women, the
begetting of one's thoughts on paper.. the
male quality is the creative gift. (Gerard
Manley Hopkins)
 Feminism is a political mistake. feminism
is a mistake made by women's intellect, a
mistake which her instinct will recognize.
(Valentine de Saint-Point)

10. Routledge (Susan
Heckman)
 Formation of fundamental aspects
 Feminism vs Marxism criticism
 Examples
 Marxist feminism and liberal feminism
 Argument of Firestone
 Theme of Mary O'Briens the politics of
reproduction (1981)
 Radical feminism
 Argument of Dorothy Dinners tien and Nancy
Chodorow
 Argument of Elizabeth Spelman
 'Women' as irrational
 What we need to do is?

11. The Second Sex Book by
Simone de Beauvoir
Higher education
Objectivity of women
Sex and gender
Otherization of women(women as
an a second gender)

12. Conclusion
 Ultimately, feminist criticism, like the
broader feminist movement itself, asks us
to consider the relationships between men
and women and their relative roles in
society. Much of feminist criticism reminds
us that men and women's roles in society
are often unequal and reflective of a
particular patriarchal ideology, and these
realities are often represented in both the
production of literature and literary texts
themselves.

13. Conclusion
 By considering literature and the world
around us from a feminist perspective,
feminist critics seek to make us more
aware of our societies' attitudes towards
women, especially in cases where current
attitudes harm or otherwise marginalize
women.
 By recognizing women's value and their
contributions to literature and society,
feminist criticism seeks to elevate women
to their rightful place in society as
contributors to and important elements of
literary works and society writ large.