Theory

1. Feminism
Mohit B Sawe

2. Basic Facts
Belief that women are
subordinated to men
To eliminate patriarchy,
liberate women,
reconstruct culture to be
inclusive of women’s
experiences
Western movement

3. Feminism
 Main concern
– cultural context of texts and cultures
– male/female power struggle in texts and
cultures
– othering
 Trends
– study of difference
– study of power relationships
– study of female experience

4. Beginnings
Formally,1960s in the US,
struggle for political
rights and equality,
franchise
Culminatn of 2 cent of
struggle for cultural
roles, socio-pol rts

5.  M. Wollstonecraft Godwin’s Vindication
of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures
on Political and Moral Subjects (1792)
– Discusses 18th c. male writers like Milton, Pope
& Rousseau (they denied women education)
– Women are essential to the nation because
they educate its children and because they
could be "companions" to their husbands.
– Rather than mere ornaments to society or
property to be traded in marriage,
Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human
beings deserving of the same fundamental
rights as men. But does not explicitly state that
women are equal to men.

6. – Wollstonecraft was responding to a
contemporary French report which said that
women should receive only domestic
education.
– Earlier, she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of
Man in response to Edmund Burke who argued
against French Revoln.
– Rights of Women is a continuation of the former
work.
– Both works have been criticized for their middle
class bias.

7.  Central argument: Women should be educated rationally in
order to give them the opportunity to contribute to society.
– In the 18th c. educational philosophers & “conduct book”
writers held that women are incapable of rational thought
because they are too susceptible to sensibility
– Women should not be constrained by or made slaves to their
bodies or their sexual feelings
– Wollstonecraft does not “grant” women sexuality or romantic
feelings, because then they wouldn’t be dominated by men.
– For her, passions are inseparable with reason.
– However, in her later unfinished work “Maria, or the Wrongs
of Woman,” she dared to acknowledge the existence of
women's sexual desires, which was taboo in Georgian
England.

8. Victorian culture

9. Victorian culture

10. Victorian Kitchen

11. Victorian Woman Writer

12. The Infamous
Victorian Hoop Skirt

13. Beginnings (1st wave feminism)
 19th c. and early 20th century
 In the US and UK
 Activist orgns, suffrage groups
 Focussed on officially mandated
inequalities
 equality and property rights for
women
 opposition to “chattel marriage”
 Fought for political and economic
equality, suffrage

14. Beginnings: 19th c.
 J.S. Mill & H.T. Mill’s The Subjection
of Women (1869)
– Catalogues the injustice of social inequality
– Human beings are capable of being
educated & civilized, for intellectual & moral
advancement. Hence everyone should
have the right to vote. Women too.
Emancipation of women is good for men
also.
• Utilitarian argument on three counts: The
immediate greater good, the enrichment of
society, and individual development.
– Attacks contemporary belief that women are
“less capable” and “less good”

15. 20th century
Proliferatn of civil rights
movements
Mothers’ rights, equal
education, equal pay

16.  V. Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929): how patriarchal
society prevented women from realizing their productive &
creative potential
Need for independence (a room & 500 pounds)
 Examines whether women were capable of producing work
of the quality of Shakespeare. Woolf invented a fictional
character Judith "Shakespeare's Sister", to illustrate that a
woman with Shakespeare's gifts would have been denied
the same opportunities.
 Woolf examines the careers of several female authors —
Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and George
Eliot.
 Refers to several prominent intellectuals of the time, and her
hybrid name for the University of Oxford and the University
of Cambridge — Oxbridge — has become well-known in
English satire, although she was not the first to use it.

17.  Woolf separated women as objects of
representation and women as authors
of representation
 A change in the forms of literature was
necessary because most literature had
been "made by men out of their own
needs for their own uses."
 Woolf touched the possibility of an
androgynous mind. Woolf refers to
Coleridge who said that a great mind is
androgynous and states that when this
fusion takes place the mind is fully
fertilized and uses all its faculties.

18.  Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
(1949)
–wide-ranging critique of cultural identificatn
of woman as negative, Other
–Women throughout history have been
defined as the “other” sex, an aberration
from the “normal” male sex.
–“One is not born, but rather becomes, a
woman”
• Judith Butler says this differentiates sex from
gender. Gender as an aspect of identity which
is "gradually acquired".

19. Second wave of feminism
1960s-70s
Awareness tht political
equality has not brought
socio-cultural equality
Critique of patriarchy,
sexist attitudes in instns,
texts, behaviour

20. Second wave of feminism
1960s-70s
Consciousness raising—health,
childcare, eqlty at work
‘The personal is the political’—
awareness abt the false distinction
between woman’s domestic sphere
and man’s public sphere

21. Second wave of feminism
1960s-70s
psychological implications of sexist
stereotypes
transcending their domestic and personal
spaces into the domains of career and
public life
Feminism enters the academe
Reflected in / through women’s journals,
publishing houses, academic disciplines

22.  US mod feminism—Mary Ellman’s
Thinking About Women (1968)
– “I am interested in women as words.”
– Exposes misperceptions and derogatory
stereotypes of women in male literature,
alternative, subversive points of view in
women’s literature
– Western culture is permeated by “sexual
analogy” (stereotypes)
– Literary Criticism too: “Books by women are
treated as though they themselves were
women; and criticism embarks . . . upon an
intellectual measuring of busts and hips.”

23.  US mod feminism—Mary Ellman’s
Thinking About Women (1968)
– 11 stereotypes: formlessness, passivity,
instability, confinement, piety,
materiality, spirituality, irrationality,
compliancy, the Witch, the Shrew
– Men have traditionally chosen to write
in an assertive, authoritarian mode,
whereas women have been confined to
the language of sensibility
– Held Dorothy Richardson in high
esteem, but not Virginia Woolf!
– No political or historical analysis
outside literature

24. Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics (1969)
 “Sex has a frequently neglected political aspect.”
 ‘Politics’—mechanisms that express & enforce
relatns of power in society
 Western social institutions as covert ways of
manipulating power
 Patriarchy is a socially conditioned belief system
masquerading as nature, Millett demonstrates how
its attitudes and systems penetrate literature,
philosophy, psychology, and politics.
 Rocked the foundations of the literary canon by
castigating classics —D. H. Lawrence’s Lady
Chatterley's Lover, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer
and Tropic of Capricorn, and Norman Mailer’s The
Naked and the Dead — for their use of sex to
degrade women. In contrast, she applauds the
gender politics of homosexual writer Jean Genet.

25. Other works of II wave
Betty Friedan’s The
Feminine Mystique (1963)
Germaine Greer’s The
Female Eunuch (1971)
Juliet Mitchell’s Woman’s
Estate (1975)

26. Third wave of feminism
1980s onwards
Marks feminism’s intervention in
Western academies
Feminism’s ongoing
associations with Marxism,
Psychoanalysis,
(Post)Structuralism

27. Third wave 1980s—
 poststructuralist view of gender
 Issues of
– Language, Writing (ecriture feminine)
– Class
– Sexuality, body, sexual difference
– Gender, Representation
 relationship with
– alternate sexualities
– Race
– Postcolonialism
– ecological studies
– inherent structures of power in the society

28. Divisions within Feminism
French
Pstructst, Psychtic;
anti-essntialist;
cnstructm;lang,
repsn, psych, not
text
J. Kristeva
H. Cixous
L. Irigaray
Anglo-Amrican
Liberal humanist—
traditionl concepts
like theme,
chrctrisn; realism;
litt as representn
E. Showalter
S. Gilbert
S. Gubar

29. Divisions within Feminism
Concept of single, collective,
identity abandoned (pstrlm)
Lesbian, radical, liberal
feminisms
Debate over role of theory
Relevance of academic
feminism to lives of women
Black feminism / womanism

30. Liberal Feminism
 Stresses women’s similarity with men
and based on “universal” values
 Minimizes differences between men and
women
 Works for success within the system;
reform not revolt
 Individual more important than group

31. Cultural / Radical
 Stresses that women are both different from
and superior to men and often advocates
expressing this fact through female forms of
culture
 The idea of a female aesthetic as wells as the
desirability of a separate female culture.
 Individuals more important than the group.
 Essentialist: stressing absolute essence of
woman and that most important difference
between men and women is biology.

32. Materialist / Neo-Marxist
 Minimizes biological difference between
men and women
 Stresses material conditions of
production such as history, race, class,
gender
 Group more important than the
individual

33. 1990s
 Postmodernism &
Poststructuralism
 Relation to new
technologies
 Changing nature of
consumer societies

34. A Review
Rt frm the start, feminism aware
of socializing / conditioning role
of litt
This involves three positions
(Toril Moi, author of Sexual /
Textual Politics)
Feminist—Political Position
Female—Matter of biology
Feminine—Cultural (Litt created
acceptable versions of feminine)

35. A Review
In the course of growth, feminism
Became eclectic (relatns with
diffnt schools of theory)
Switched frm attacking male
versions to exploring female
world & outlook
Recognized the need to
construct a new canon of
women’s writing

36. A Review
Women’s Writing Phases—
Elaine Showalter
 Feminine (1840-80): Imitated male
norms (Imitation)
 Feminist (1880-1920): Radical &
separatist (Protest)
 Female (1920—): Focus on female
writing & experience (Self-Discovery)

37. Feminist criticism: Two Sections
 WOMAN AS READER (Feminist Critique)
– consumers of a male-produced literature
– images and stereotypes
– omissions and misconceptions
– fissures in male-constructed literary history
– exploitation and manipulation of the female
audience

39. Feminist criticism: Two Sections
 WOMAN AS WRITER (Gynocriticism)
– producer of textual meaning
– focus on female subjectivity, female language
and female literary career
– construct a female framework for the analysis
of women’s literature
– women are placed at the centre of enquiry
– work both inside and outside the male tradition

40. Feminism and Language
Long-standing debate
Woolf—language is
gendered; but does not
define woman’s language
Dale Spender—Man Made
Language (1981)—Lang is
an instrumt thru which
patriarchy finds expressn

41. Feminism and Language
French theorists—ecriture
feminine (term Cixous’s The
Laugh of the Medusa)
Beyond logic
Fight in an anarchic realm
agnst authority
Product of the female body
Immune to social conditiong

42. Feminism and Language
Cixous’s theory in short:
Should give forth the
pure essence of the
feminine
(Essentialist idea—
against the notion of
constructed femininity)

43. Feminism and Language
Kristeva: 2 aspects of lang
Symbolic (authority, order,
fathers, repression, control,
fixed & unified self)
Semiotic (displacement,
slippage, condensation)

44. Kristeva and Language
Symbolic (prose,
conscious, structuralist—
structures & binaries)
Semiotic (poetry,
unconscious, poststructlist—
floating signifiers, random
connexns, improvisations)

45. Kristeva and Language
Symbolic (Lacanian
Symbolic or linguistic phase)
Semiotic (Lacanian
Imaginary or pre-linguistic,
pre-Oedipal phase)

46. Gynocriticism
Term—Showalter’s Towards a
Feminist Poetics
‘Woman-centred’ approach
Criticm that develops a female
framework for women’s writing—
prodn, motivatn, interpretn, etc.
Critiqued for essentialism

47. Gynocritical Texts
 Patricia M. Spacks,The Female Imagn
 Ellen Moers,Literary Women
 Elaine Showalter,A Litt of Their Own
 Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar,The
Madwoman in the Attic (anxiety of
authorship, tht lit. creativity is an
exclusive male prerogative, creates a
counter-figure for the idealized woman,
the madwoman (Bertha Rochester in
Jane Eyre)

48. Feminist Art
 Efforts of feminists internationally to make art
that reflects women's lives and experience
 Efforts to change the foundation for the
production and reception of contemporary art
 Sought to bring more visibility to women
within art history and practice.
 Began in the late 1960s and flourished
throughout the 1970s as an outgrowth of the
so-called third wave of feminism
 Its effects continue to the present.
 The Woman’s Building at Los Angeles
(opened in 1973) was an important centre

49. Sophia Hayden, architect

50. Activities at Woman’s Building
 protests against exclusion of women artists in
museums
 the opening of gallery spaces dedicated to
the work of women
 the founding of the first feminist art education
programs
 founded the first independent school for
women artists, the Feminist Studio Workshop
 Major Artists
– Judy Chicago
– Miriam Schapiro
– Kate Millet

51. NAKED LADY, a
sculpture by
Kate Millet, is
raised to the
roof of the
Woman's
Building in 1978
to celebrate the
5th anniversary.

52. Cindy Sherman

53. Barbara Kruger

54. Joyce Wieland

55. Kiki Smith

56. Feminist Theatre
 Just as there is not one feminism there is not
one feminist theatre. Each particular feminist
theatre group can be studied in relation to the
idea that feminist theatre is itself a form of
cultural representation influenced by changes
in the landscapes of feminism, women’s
studies, economics, politics, and cultural
studies. However, the goal for almost all
feminist theatre groups is to subvert
expectation, to enable or initiate positive
change for women through political and
theatrical representation.
Linda Alcoff

57. Feminist Theatre
 Meaning emerges from the collisions of
characters, contexts and images not from the
standard plot progression
 Transformation vs. revelation and recognition:
characters struggle to truth through
transformation. “Herstories” & the challenge
of assumed perceptions on the differences
between men and women
 Narrative (visual and verbal gestures and
images are connected) juxtaposition of
dialogue and visual imagery

58. Feminist Theatre
 Slice of life/realism vs. empty frame (the
ability to question reality and assumptions
and to practice/portray/question social norms)
 Patriarchal traditions (power hierarchies,
“main character”, standard social/artistic roles
vs. communal power structures (devising and
collaborative writing process used by many
communal/cooperative companies, visual
texts, small-scale commissioning of new
works by women authors, and collaborative
writing)
 Invisible author vs. autobiographical women’s
voice (tradition arising from the
consciousness groups and psychotherapy)

59. Representative Artists
 Liberal—Marsha Norma
 Cultural—Women’s Experimental
Theatre
 Materialistic—Caryl Churchill