Below, please post the information/ resources you find about feminist literary criticism online. What is feminist literary criticism? What sorts of questions do feminist literary critics ask of texts? How does feminist literary criticism challenge some ideas about the canon that we discussed in class on Tuesday?
These definitions where pulled from three different websites. Two were for definitions and one was a women's history website. Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or by the politics of feminism more broadly.
ReplyDeleteGrew out of women's movement following WW II, this approach analyzes the representation of women in literature.
Feminist literary criticism is literary analysis that arises from the viewpoint of feminism, feminist theory and/or feminist politics. Basic methods of feminist literary criticism include: Identifying with female characters and Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is read.
The definitions I came across seem to be more encyclopedic than definitive, so I took the synopsis from Bedford St. Martin's virtuaLit page and created my own definition..
ReplyDeleteAs a challenge towards social gender bias and the attitudes towards sex, sexuality and gender in literature, feminist literary criticism seeks to question and expose the use of language that has submitted and still submits women to masculine dominance, as well as examine and emphasize the evolving global perspectives of women.
Feminist Literacy Criticism is the assessment, analysis, study, and debate on feminist literature. Its main intentions are to embrace the female tradition of writing, prevent sexism in literary texts, and help women writers gain a significant place in the world were men are the top dogs.
ReplyDeleteFeminist literary critics analyze the representation of women in literature. Their basis of analyzing focuses on patriarchy; ideology that privileges masculine ways of thinking/points of view and marginalizes women politically, economically and psychologically.
ReplyDeleteI took the Wikipedia approach in order to find what a more casual search would find. I was directed to 'Feminist Criticism' and given the following definition: Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism, which was developed in the late 1960s, focusing on the role of women in literature. Two important representatives are Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir who claim that women are a subject and no object. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_criticism)
ReplyDeleteI found this essay on the internet browsing for articles about The Feminist perspective in literature. My search started at Google and broadened from there. There is a staggering amount of information that can be found, but here is what i found:
ReplyDelete"The emergence of feminist literary criticism is one of the major developments in literary studies in the past thirty years or so. Since feminist literary criticism has re-discovered the forgotten texts, from the 17th century onwards, written by women whose contribution to the emergence of the novel genre is undeniable, and included them in the critical evalua-tions, it is quite important to present them both in a historical and literary perspective. Thus the first part of this article is largely devoted to the literary achievements of these early women writers."
The essay continues here:
The definition I found came from http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/feminist_criticism.htm
ReplyDeleteliterary analysis that arises from the viewpoint of feminism, feminist theory and/or feminist politics. Basic methods of feminist literary criticism include:
1. Identifying with female characters
2. Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is read.
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or by the politics of feminism more broadly. Feminist literary criticism before the 1970's was concerned with the politics of women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature. More recently, it has considered gender in the terms of the deconstruction of existing relations of power, and as a concrete political investment.
ReplyDeleteAfter browsing through several Google articles, I found that feminist literary criticism is a literary analysis that comes from the viewpoint of feminism, feminist theory and even feminist politics. This criticism challenges the role of male authors and questions the way society values women's works. Many believe that women authors are not appreciated as much as men authors solely because of their gender.
ReplyDeleteThis type of criticism began in the time of the second-wave feminism. Like we discussed in class with Shakespeare vs. more recent literature, this wave was a dispute pertaining to the male literary cannon. Like the Shakespeare argument we discussed in class, this topic of criticism is still disputed amongst today.
From Josh:
ReplyDeleteAccording to Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown of the University of Toronto, feminist literary criticism is a “criticism advocating equal rights for women in political, economic, social, psychological, personal, and aesthetic sense”. Their definition also relates to our discussion on the canon, as they state that feminist literary critics want to “extend the canon so that it might include works by lesbians, feminists, and women writers in general”. The link to their full definition is http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/glossary/Feminist_criticism.html.
After some browsing, I was interested to find that Feminist Theory can be broken down into three groups: one with an essentialist focus, one that establishes a feminist literary canon and one focusing on sexual difference/ politics. Each breaking down to what it really means to be a woman and evaluating the stereotypical female traits.
ReplyDeleteIn my online search for feminist literary theory, I discovered a PDF that analyzes J.K. Rowling's series, 'Harry Potter', from the context of a feminist critic. Particularly because it is a children's book, feminists take a hard look at what influences are produced for the next generation. Within this PDF (http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt2/sayi9pdf/mikulan_krunoslav.pdf) Mikulan defines feminist literary criticism, "in its extreme form", as regarding literature "solely as a political expression of the relationship between the sexes." Furthermore, "the author's context and intentions are completely irrelevant and are considered only to the extent to which they confirm the negative
ReplyDeleteposition of women within the patriarchal structure of power. Instead of the author's context it is the
reader’s context that is examined from the feminist perspective."
Feminist criticism sheds some harsh light on the canon discussed in last Tuesday's class, particularly the author's involved (mostly male), and the main characters/struggles suffered by the main characters.
While some feminist critics may see a text from the perspective of the whole text, working negatively towards proving a sexist base, other feminist critics pinpoint female/male characters and weight their pros/cons against fighting marginilization and sexist terms.
Questions feminist literary critics ask of texts:
ReplyDeleteHow is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)?
How are male and female roles defined?
What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
How do characters embody these traits?
Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this change others’ reactions to them?
What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?
What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?
What does the work say about women's creativity?
What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?
What role the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary tradition? (Tyson)
source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/
Feminist literary criticism focuses on analyzing women in literature in terms of social stature and socialized gender roles. A focus of this analysis is on the hegemony of the male gender and how women fit into or transcend the traditional subordination. Questions are posed about how a woman fits a preconceived gender role or goes against it and how she is treated due to that fit.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of feminst literary criticism is to apply ideas that have a basis in feminism. To look at the work through the eyes of a feminist. It is concerned with the ways in which literature reinforce or undermine teh economic, political, social and psychological oppression of women.
ReplyDeleteThe main intentions of feminist criticism according to Lisa Tittle are:
To unfold and widen the female tradition of writing
• To reinterpret and divulge the old books on feminism
• To help women's writings retain or gain a significant place even in the world of men
• To consider female writer and their writings from the perspective of a women
• To prevent sexism in literary texts
• To augment alertness regarding sexual politics of language and its approach
"Feminist Literary Criticism." World Map, Map of the World. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. .
I found this definition on the New York Public Library's website:
ReplyDelete"Briefly, feminist criticism aims to reinterpret literature from a female point of view. This is accomplished in several ways. Some feminist critics seek to interpret the works of male authors, with particular attention to women characters, in order to explore the moral, political and social restrictions women traditionally faced. Other feminist critics choose to analyze the works of women authors that have been previously overlooked by male critics."
So in my research I found that feminist literary criticism has in essence, two parts. First, critics seek to reinterpret works by male authors through a feminist lens (a woman's status in society, and morality around women to name a few key points). And second, to look at female authors who have been generally overlooked in the literary canon. It's vague and probably doesn't do the definition too much justice, but these are the factors that I took into my understanding of feminist literary criticism.
Feminist literary criticism has a history that has been quite broad. It ranges from classic works of nineteenth-century women authors (George Eliot and Margaret Fuller) to cutting-edge theoretical work and gender studies by "third-wave" authors.
ReplyDeleteQuestions that feminist literary criticism typically asks the same things of texts. The difference between male and female, their traits and behaviors, and the style of women writing.
Feminism refers to movements aimed at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. This is from Wikipedia, so standards disclaimers apply. Using it as a theory is to see works with a clear focus of women, in various ways.
ReplyDeleteFeminist theory as far as I have studied it is always in conflict with the social norm and is therefore a battle that is forever uphill. The feminist reading of a work, can be seen as forced and instantly invalidated. This bleeds into personal life too. Can a woman, as pediatrician, be seen as overcoming a male-dominated industry of medicine or caving to the social norms, still seeing to the care of children?