Literary Theories Session 5 Feminist Criticism

FEMINIST CRITICISMLiterary TheoriesSessionSesso 5

Full NameSEX GENDER?:Date of Birth :?Sex:Nationality:Helps understand social inequalities, particularlyamong womengender differences contribute to genderinequalities and the larger inequalities in thesociety.society

SEX:A system of classifying human beingsbased on their biological characteristics(male and female)GENDER:The roleThl divisiondi i i off malel andd femaleflbased on certain assumptions that aresociallyy or culturallyy constructed

A MANA person who Has a penis,Produces sperm

A WOMAN A person who Has a uterus,Has a vaginavagina,Produces ovary, andHas organs for milk-feedingmilk feeding .

REALITY VS MYTH

STEREOTYPE OF A MAN RationalStronggToughBravea e

STEREOTYPE OF WOMEN EmotionalWeakSpoiledGracefulShy

NATURE OF WOMENThe image cannot be display ed. Your computer may not hav e enough memory to open the image, or the image may hav e been corrupted. Restart y our computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, y ou may hav e to delete the image and then insert it again.CHILDREN CARE?MANAK?MACAK?MASAK?

GENDER INEQUALITYWOMEN SUBORDINATIONWanita dijajah pria sejak dulu?Awan dadi theklek,theklek bengi dadi lemekFEMALE PRESIDENT?

GENDER INEQUALITIESMARGINALIZATION OF WOMEN

GENDER INEQUALITIESINEQUALITY OF WORKLOAD

GENDER INEQUALITIESVIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENPHYSICAL VIOLENCEPSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE &MARITAL RAPE

GENDER RECONSTRUCTION

FEMINISM “Feminism” is a political act whose aim is notsimplyp y to interpretpthe world but to changeg itby changing the consciousness of those whoread and their relation to what they read. . .[The first act of a feminist critic is] tobecome a resisting rather than an assentingreaderd and,d byb thisthi refusalfl tot assent,t totbegin the process of exorcizing the malemind that has been implantedpin us" (Judith(Fetterley)

FEMINIST CRITICISM A criticism advocating equal rights forwomen in a political, economic, social,psychological,h l i l personal,l andd aestheticth tisense.Objective: To raise awareness of womenwomen’ssroles in all aspects of literary production(as writers,te s, as ccharactersa acte s in literature,te atu e, asreaders etc.) and to reveal the extent ofmale dominance in all of these aspects.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPENT Feminist theory can be divided into two major stages:The First Wave veryy much influenced byy the social and economic reformsbrought about by the Women’s Rights and Suffragemovements.The Second Wave very much influenced by the various liberationist movements,especially in America, in the 1960s.Focusing on sexual differencedifference.Criticizing the argument that women were made ‘inferior’ byvirtues of their biological difference to men

1ST WAVE Vi i i WoolfVirginiaW lf (1882–1941)(1882 1941) A Room with a View (1927): exploring femaleexperience and not just comparisons with the situationin society of men. Three Guineas (1938): the dominance of the majorprofessions by men.Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) The Second Sex (1949): outlining the differencesbetween the interests of men and women andattacked various forms of male dominance overwomen.

2nd WAVE Kate Millett (1934–) Sexual Politics (1969): the main cause of theoppression of women is ideology—Patriarchy—thattreats females universally as inferior (subordinate)both in public and private life.life Sandra Gilbert & SusanGuber The Madwoman in the Attic (1979): exploration ofcertain female stereotypes in literature, especiallythose of the ‘angel’ and the ‘monster’.

Julia Kristeva (1941–) La Révolution du langage poétique (1974): trying to destroy the omnipotence of this male order,advocating a kind of anarchic liberation, in which‘poetic’pand ‘political’pbecome interchangeable.gHelène Cixous (1937–)The Laugh of the Medusa (1976): arguing for apositive representation of femininity in women’swriting; encouraging women to celebrate theircompletely different nature to men, their otherness.

Ruth Robbins Literary Feminisms (2000): explaining how conditionssuch as poverty and undereducation producedifferent signifiying systems than works produced inconditions of pprivilegeg and educational plenty.py

AMAZON FEMINISM dedicated to the image of the female hero in fictionand in fact, as it is expressed in art and literature, inthe pphysiquesy qand feats of female athletes, and insexual values and practices.concerned about physical equality and is opposed togender role stereotypes and discrimination againstwomen basedb d on assumptionstithatth t women aresupposed to be, look or behave as if they arepassive, weak and physically helpless.rejectsj t ththe ididea thatth t certaint i characteristicsht i ti orinterests are inherently masculine (or feminine), andupholds and explores a vision of heroic womanhood.Thus Amazon feminism advocates e.g.,e g femalestrength athletes, martial artists, soldiers, etcCf. Gaian theory

LIBERAL FEMINISM works within the structure of mainstreamsociety to integrate women into thatstructure.structurerooted to the social contract theory ofgovernment instituted by the AmericanRRevolution.l tiemphasizes on equality for women (AbigailAdamsda s aandd Marya y Wollstonecraft)o sto ec a t)slog along inside the system, getting littledone amongst the compromises until someradical movement shows up and pulls thosecompromises left of center.

RADICAL FEMINISM the breeding ground for many of the ideasarising from feminism.centered on the necessity to question genderroles, such as "gender politics" questions.questions whyy women must adoptqp certainroles based on their biology, just as itquestions why men adopt certain other rolesbased ono theirs.t e sattempts to draw lines between biologicallydetermined behavior and culturallydetermined behavior in order to free bothmen and women as much as possible fromtheir previous narrow gender roles

MARXIST-SOCIALIST FEMINISM Socialist feminism: a marriage between Marxism andradical feminism, with Marxism the dominant partner(Echols)Marxists and socialists often call themselves "radical,"but they use the term to refer to a completelydifferent "root"root of society: the economic systemMarxism recognizes that women are oppressed, andattributes the oppression to the capitalist/privateproperty system.They insist that the only way to end the oppressionpsystem.yof women is to overthrow the capitalist

MATERIAL FEMINISM A movement in the late 19th century toliberate women by improving theirmaterial condition.Taking the burden of housework andcooking off their shoulders.

CENTRAL ASSUMPTIONS Sexual oppression existsGender counts: Being female and/or thinkingas a female does make a differencedifference, even ifit’s only a social/historical oneGender and sex are different -- ggender issocially constructed. The differences betweenmen and women are not so much biologicalas socsocial:.aSex iss bSebiological-o og ca(male/female); gender is cultural(masculine/feminine) and there is nonecessary connection between the two.

Diversity and Identity Count-- who weare is part of our reading processSubjectivity: Like reader-responsecritics feminist critics believe that thecritics,perceiver makes a big impact onreading.readingTherefore, feminist critics are interestedin the historical/cultural identity politicsof both readers and writers.

Read as a Woman: You don’t have to befemale to read like a woman or to analyzetexts from a feminine point of view or to doresearch on women writers.Canon Building: Traditional women’s writingandd readingdi havehbeenbneglectedl t d andd it isiworthwhile to restore them to parity. Theliterary canon has largely been a product of,b andby,d forf men, andd thereforeh ftheh rolesl forfwomen as either authors or characters arelimitedEverything is political. All reading and writingis political

Women’s experience matters: Validation ofthe personal (“the personal is the political”);i di id l experienceindividualicounts;t thingsthithatth thappen to you, also happen to everyone elseand are ppart of a powerpstructure that isultimately politicalLiterature and literary criticism are politicalGender discrimination is parallel to and partof the same system that producesdiscrimination according to race,race ethnicity,ethnicitysexual preference, class etc.

KEY TERMS The Other – woman has been categorized as “Other”Social construction of gender (and race)GGynocriticismiti i-- theth studyt d off litliteraturetbby women anddabout womenmisogynygy y -- hatred of women / misanthropep -- hatespeople / misandry -- hatred of menpolitical criticism -essentialism -- a deterministic view that "biologybiology isdestiny" (opposite of social construction) belief thatthere is an inherent set of traits that determine bothsex and gendergender, that male and female areimmutable, absolute categories,

ANALYTICAL METHODS Mimetic – images of women – critiques stereotypes,archetypalPragmatic – how do women read? Do women readdifferently from men? What happens when you read“as a woman”. Does the text have a doublediscourse: does it speak differently to women andmen?Expressive – very concerned with situation of thewoman writer,iwithi h establishingbli hi theh literarylihistoryhioffwomen writers (recovery of lost women writers)Objectivej– what are the assumptionspthat governgliterary value? Why are certain works canonized,while others are forgotten.

FEMINIST ANALYSISMENPOSITION ROLE UBLICDOMESTIC & PUBLICDOMESTICPUBLICDOMESTIC & PUBLICUNLIMITED/MORE EQUAL LIMITED/LESS WOMENUNLIMITED/MOREEQUALLIMITED/LESS

Feminist theory can be divided into two major stages:Feminist theory can be divided into two major stages: The First Wave veryyy much influenced by the social and economic reforms brought about by the Women’s Rights and Suffrage movements. TheSecondWaveThe Second Wave very much influenced by the various liberationist movements,