Feminist Criticism (1960’s)
Ø Aristotle
distinguishes women on account of “female
is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities”
Ø According to his
theory of virtues” men’s virtues were those required for “freedom & Political life”, women’s virtues convicted in “Obedience & Silence”
Ø According to
Genesis, while God created Adam, Eve is created from a supernumerary bone of
Adam”.
Ø St. Thomas
Acquinas calls woman as “imperfect man.’
Says female nature is afflicted with a natural defectiveness.
Ø Immanuel Kant
considers women as deficient moral agents “Who are unfit for public life”
Ø In pre-mendelin
days, sperm was regarded as active seed, which gave form to the passively
waiting ovum.
Ø This is reversed
by aggressive feminists like Mary Ellman, who suggested “Ovum is dynamic, while
sperm is sheep like”.
Ø Other Philosophers
like Rousseau, Hegel. Nietzsche Jean Paul Satre have considered woman as
morally inferior.
Ø Lisa Tuttle
Defined feminist theory as “asking new questions of old texts”
Ø The word”
feminism” originated from French word “Feminisme”
coined by utopian socialist Charles Fourier, and was first used in English in
1890’s
Ø Feminism is an
organised movement for women’s rights and interests and political economic and
social equality of sexes in phallocentric male dominated society.
Ø Rousseau argued
that “women do not need education”
Ø Freud says “a woman is castrated man (penis-envy).”
Ø It is concerned
with reading, writing & responding as a woman to the woman is presented in
literature. It analyzes & describes the ways in which literature portrays
the male domination.
Ø They examine old
text within literary canon through new lens
Ø Feminist Criticism
is emerged as a protest what Virginia Woolf called “Patriarchy” or “Rule of
father”
Ø Feminist
Consciousness prevailed for long but it didn’t emerge as a self aware and
concerted approach till 1960’s
· Biological Model: Emphasis Body
· Linguistic Model:
Emphasis on female discourse
·
Cultural Model: Emphasis on how
society shapes Women’s goals.
Note:
American feminist
criticism is about suppression.
British feminist
criticism is about oppression.
French feminist
criticism is about Freud’s subconscious.
Key Terms
Good Girl – Bad Girl: Who follows
patriarchal rules are good; who defy are “bad”
Patriarchal Binary
Thought: Concept by “Helene Cixous.” Language reveals
“Patriarchal binary Thought”, in polar opposites where one is superior and
other is seeing the world.
Madonna Vs Eve:
Madonna is pure, virgin doesn’t sex. Eve is responsible for downfall of
mankind, evil, enjoys sex.
Sexism:
Prejudice, stereotype or discrimination typically against woman, on the basis
of sex
Crows dresser:
One who adopts the attire of opposite sex, but behaves in a manner of their
biological sex
The New Woman:
A women from the roaring twenties, who dresses and nuts in ways that are new
and against Patriarchy.
Androgyny:
Coleridge’s term- mind with both, female and male understanding. Virginia Woolf
used this in “A Room of one’s own”
Misogyny:
Term describing the male hatred of women
Inclusive He:
using the term “He” to refer to both sexes
Sex (vs) Gender
–
-Sex
is biologically determined -Reproductive Parts
-Gender
is socially constructed – Masculine & feminine.
-Belief
that women are inferior to men- This is Biological essentialism,
-Belief
that Gender is constructed on social basis-This Social constructivism.
Male Gaze:
The Way that the world is depicted from Male point of view
-Man
looks, woman is looked at
Gynocriticism:
Coined by Elaine Showalter in her 1979 essay’ “Towards Feminist poetics”. Focus
on female author’s literature.
-Aims
to recover lost/neglected women in literature.
-She
developed her thesis in “A literature of
their own: British women Bronte to Lessing (1977)”
-in
her next Book “The Female Malady: Women
madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (1985)”
Phallocentric:
“phallus or Male centred culture. (Phallus=Penis)
Phallogocentric:
derived from “Phallus (male centred) & Logo (word centred).
-Term
evolved from deconstructionist Jacques Derrida-Terry Eagleton translated it as
Cock-sure (truth centred)
-They
questioned the logo centrism of the western literature (Male dominated
vocabulary)
(Earnest
Hemmingway’s novels are phallgocentric)
Ecriture feminine:
Concept of 1970’s.
Coined
by Helen Cixous in the essay “The laugh of Medusa (1976)”
Literary
meaning is feminine, writing showing examples of James Joyce.
Double Burden:
(or) Second shift: used to describe
the workload of people who work to earn money and also responsible for unpaid
domestic labour.
-Also
known as “The Second Shift” (It is the book name “Arlie Hochschild”)
-Often
in couples where both patterns have jobs
Womanism or Black feminism:
term coined by Alice Walker in her short story “Coming Apart(1979)”
Waves of
feminist criticism
1st
Wave:
from
French Revolution (1789) – 1700’s-1900’s
(Suffragette movement, civil rights movement)
-Focus
on women’s suffrage (=right to vote)
-Women
got the right to vote in 1928.
-According
to Simon De Beauvoir The find woman “to take up her pen in defense of sex” is
Christine De Pisan (1400’s)
-Anne
Brad Street, Aphra Behn, Wollstonecraft in (1700’s)
-Wollstonecraft
regarded as “Grandmother of British
Feminism.”
-Mary
Ellmann’s- Thinking about women(1968)
-Kate
Millets- Sexual Politics(1970)
-Germaine
Greer’s -The Finale Eunuch (1970).
2nd Wave
-From
women’s liberation movement 1960’s -WW-II
-commonly
known as “Gynocriticism”
-Focus
on reproductive rights for women, and discrimination in family and workplace, domestic
violence, marital rape, sexual and legal issues.
-exposed
phallocentrism & sexism.
-led
to significant positive change. For example, it is hugely responsible for Equal
Pay legislation.
-Imagination
issues.
-Believed
to have began with Elaine Show-Walter’s “A Literature of their own”
-Began
in US in 1960’s-1980’s
-Net
working of women’s groups, deeper engagement with political debates. Ex: “Personal is political” essay by Carol
Hanisch.
|
The personal is
political or The Private is political (1969-essay) -by
Carol Hanisch (radical feminist- member of NYRW & Redstockings) -
In 2nd wave of feminism. -The
idea of women being unhappy in their roles as housewives and mothers in homes
was seen as a private issue but it needs political intervention to generate
change. |
-The Madwoman in Attic (1979)- By Sandra and Susan.
-Nancy Julia Chodorow’s “The
Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender (1978)”
criticized father-son relationship of Freudian Psychoanalysis and focused on Mother-son relationship.
3rd
Wave
-focus
on Post structuralist interpretations
-1990’s-2008
-Focus
on embracing individualism & diversity
-Begin
with Rebecca Walker’s “Becoming the third wave (1992)”- article
-Jennifer
Baumgardener & Amy Richards “Manifesta:
Young Women, feminism & future (2000)”
-Jacqueline
Rose’s Albertine (2001)-novel is a feminist
variation of Proust’s “In Search of Lost
Time” and “The Haunting of Sylvia
Plath(1991)” is a feminist interpretation of Plath’s works.
-Cyber-feminism,
eco-feminism, emergence of a postcolonial slant to feminist theory.
4th
Wave- 2008-
-Kira
Cochrane’s “All the Rebel Women: The rise
of the fourth wave feminism” defined it as movement that is connected
through technology.
-4th
wave feminism continues politics, Psychology & Spirituality” – in Diana
Diamond’s article “The Fourth Wave of Feminism: Psychoanalytic Perspectives (2009 )”
Foci of
sexual difference:
Roman
Selden points out 5 main foci of sexual difference.
1.Biological
Biographical
disparity makes men treat women as inferior, as woman is nothing but a womb”
2.Experience
-Women’s
experiences are something special & Unique (Ovulation, Menstruation,
Parturition), some argue that only they can speak of a woman’s life.
-Study
of these differences in Literature are called “Gynocritics”
3.Discource
-Dale
Spender points out that women have been oppressed a male-dominated language in
his “Man Made Language(1981)” But
Susan & Sandra Gilbert’s “Sexual
Linguistics: Gender, language & Sexuality” challenged this thesis.
-Robin
Lack off treats women’s language as inferior, weak, uncertain, trivial and
hence women should adopt make language which is stronger. But Radical feminists
feel that women have been brain washed by this type of patriarchal ideology.
4.The Unconscious
The
Psychoanalytical theories of Lacan & Kristeva provided the focus on process
of subconscious.
5. Social &
Economic Conditions:
Virginia
Woolf was the first woman writer to take this dimension.
Precursors in
feminist Criticism
Christine De Pisan
(1365-1429)
She
is the first woman to take up her pen in defence of sex”-said by Simon De
Beavoir
Being
widowed at the age of 25, with 3 children, earned her living as a writer.
She
wrote:
1.
Epistle to the God of love (1399)
2.
Book of Three virtues
3
The Book of the City ladies (14015)
Mary Wollstonecraft
-discuss
about Milton, Pope & Rousseau’s “Emily”
-regarded
as Grandmother of British feminism”
-She
wrote “ Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters (1787)
-
“A Vindications of the Rights of Woman:
with Structures on Political and moral subjects. (1792)”
-Argues
women are “Companions to their husbands rather the mere wives, she must have
the same fundamental rights as men.
-Maria or the Wrongs of women (1798)-
radical feminist work, “published posthumously
Adelina Virginia Woolf
-Pioneer
in use of “Stream of consciousness “A Room
One’s own (1729)” is the first work to take up of economic issues
-she
argues that women must have 500 dollars a year and a room of her own to write.
-“The
Professions for Women (speech) (1931):
says you have own Rooms in the house hither to exclusively owned by men.
-Three Guineas:
unfinished essay, conceived as novel – essay with tie up the loose ends up left
in her “A Room of One’s own”
John Stuart Mill
-“The Subjection
of women (1869) (essay)
With ideas jointly
with his wife Hariot Taylor Mill, for equality of men and women.
-On Liberty (1859) – Collaborated
with wife
Margaret Fuller
-Woman in the nineteen the contrary (1845)
Olive Schreiner
-Women & Labour (1911)
Sojourner Truth
-Ain’t I a woman’ (Speech in 1851)
-Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism
book by Bell Hooks is titled after Sojourner Truth’s essay
Types of feminist Criticisms.
Gynocriticism:
-Focus on female
author’s literature. Term coined by Elaine show Walter in her essay “Towards Feminist Poetics (1979)”
-Adopts feminine
oriented models rather than adopting to male models
Materialist Feminism:
-Highlights
Capitalism & Patriarchy
-Examines the
Patriarchal traditions that control and economic conditions that oppress women
-Aims at
unburdening of traditional tasks
-Ex: Women are
unpaid for domestic Jobs.
Psycho-analytic feminism
-Based on
Patriarchy’s psychological influence women, including unconscious oppression
Cultural feminism:
-Argues
that modern society is hurt by encouraging masculine behaviour,
-Says
society would benefit by encouraging feminine behaviour.
-Asserts
that women are “Kindler & Gentler than men in spite of Personality &
Biological differences exist.
Eco-Feminism:
-It
unites environmentalism and feminism.
-Argues
that female values such as nurturing, patience, co-operation which are present
both among women & nature.
-Argues
that the society’s original condition was matriarchal
Liberal feminism
-Believes
that all individuals should be free to explore equal opportunities &
rights.
-Condemns
the belief that women are less intellectuals, less physical capable than men
-
fights for gender equality through social, legal, political rights.
Radical feminism in
1960’s
-wants
to eliminate the concept of Gender completely
-Called
for Matriarchy (=Women will rule)
-Suggests
to find a technology which allows babies to be grown outside of a women’s body
to promote equality of gender.
-Argues
that while women take care of children, men works outside.
-Originated
from the Alice Enchol’s “Daring to be
Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-75 (1989)
-Radical Feminism:
Anthology- Anne Koedt (US)
-The Myth of Vaginal Orgasm- Anne Koedt
-Monique
Wittig is a radical feminist.(see French Feminism)
The Feminists
-It
was a second-wave radical feminist group active in New York City from 1968 to
1973.
-It
was originally called the October 17th Movement after the date that it was
founded, but soon changed its name to The Feminists.
-Ti-Grace
Atkinson was the group's central figure;
-other
prominent members: Anne Koedt (who left in 1969), Sheila Michaels,
New York Radical
Women-NYRW (1967-69) -2nd wave of feminism
-Found
by Robin Morgan, Card Hanisch, Sulamith Firestone, Pam Allen,
-Part
of New left wing, against the Marxist/leftists
-
Their slogan is “sisterhood is powerful”
-Kathie
Sarachild wrote a flier for the keynote speech she gave at the convocation, and
in this flier she coined the phrase "Sisterhood
is powerful"
-Sisterhood anthologies edited by Robin
Morgan:
Sisterhood Is Powerful(1970)
Sisterhood Is Global(1984)
Sisterhood Is Forever(2003)
-Carol
Hanisch's "The Personal Is Political", and Kate
Millett's "Sexual Politics: A
Manifesto for Revolution", which would later become part of her
classic feminist book Sexual Politics.
Red stockings
-It
is also known as the Women’s liberation Movement. It is a radical
feminist non-profit that was founded in January 1969 in New York City,
whose goal is "To Defend and Advance the Women's Liberation
Agenda".
-The
group's name is derived from bluestocking, a term used to
disparage feminist intellectuals of earlier centuries, and red,
for its association with the revolutionary left.
-The
group was started by Ellen Willis and
Shulamith Firestone in January 1969, after the breakup of New York Radical
Women.
-
They published Feminist Revolution in
1975
New York Radical
Feminists (NYRF) was a radical feminist group founded by
Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt in 1969, after they had left Redstockings, and The feminists respectively.
Marxist feminism
-
focus on women’s oppression through system of capitalism & Private
property,
-Argues
that women’s liberation can only be achieved through reconstruction of
capitalist economy, since much of women’s labour is un in compensated.
-Influenced
by Karl Marx, Frederich Engels in Communist
Manifesto(1848); and by Karl Marx in “A
Contribution to the Critique of political Economy (1859)
-Engels
published Origin of the family, Private
property and State (1884)” in which the argues shift from feudalism to
private property had a huge effect on the status of woman.
-This
book laid foundations to Marxist feminism
-Michael
Barret- Women’s oppression Today:
Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis
Socialist
Feminism: in 1960’s-70’s
-Argues
that liberation can be achieved by working to end the cultural & economic
sources of oppression,
-Alice
Enchols describes it as marriage b/w Marxism & Radical feminism.
-Uses
“Capitalism concept” of Marxism and “Gender & Patriarchy Concept” of
Radical feminism
-Socialist Feminism: A strategy for the
women’s movement (1972) by Hyde Park is believed to be the first work to
use the term Socialist feminism
Judith Mitchell
(British)
“Psycho Analysis &
Feminism: Freud, Reich, Laing and Women (1974)”
Black Feminism or
Womenism
-Argues
that sexism, class oppression, gender identity & racism are inextricably
bound together
-
The way these concepts relates to each other is called Intersectionality, Term coined by legal
scholar “Kimberle Crem show in 1989.
-“Woman,
Race, class 1981” Angela Davis is a is the key text of Black Feminism.
-Alice
Walker’s (US-Novelist) – Color Purple
(1982) won National Book Award & Pulitzer Prize, is an epistolary Novel
in which she says “Womenist is to
feminist as purple is to lavender”
-
She coined the term womenist in her
short story, Coming Apart(1979).
-She
is the first black woman author to win Pulitzer in 1983 for the book Color Purple(1982)
Amazon Feminism
-Emphasise
the physique of female Athletes & physical equality of both males &
females
Separatist feminism:
Advocates
separation from men, either total or Partial
Gynocriticism:
-Patrica
Meyer Spacks- The female Imagination
(1975)”,
-Ellen
Moer’s – Literary Women (1976)
-Elaine
Showalter’s – A literature of their own:
British women novelists from Bronte to
Lessing (1977)- (chief exponent of
Gynocriticism)
-Women’s Liberation & literature (1971)
is an anthology edited by her
-In
her “Towards feminist Poetics (1978)”- a lecture: Elaine showalter divides
criticism into two types of criticisms.
i. Concerned with women as reader(Feminist
Crtique), with male produced literature, about androtexts (by males)
ii. Concerned
with women as writer (Gynocriticism) (Gyno texts= by Females)
-She
prefers Gynocriticism to feminist critique.
-In
her Literature of their own (1979), she examines British women novelists from
Bronte to Lessing and she classified female literary tradition into 3 phases:
i) The first phase (1840-1880)
(Feminine phase)
– Women writes imitated male standards felt same limits in
Expressions Ex: Gaskell’s shot
ii) The Second Phase (1880-1920)
(Feminist phase)
advocated radical feminism, separatist, Amazonian and Suffragette sister hoods
ex: Elizabeth Robins, Olive Schreimer
iii) The Third Phase (1920-)
(Female Phase)
Developed the idea of female writing and female expert Frankness about female
sexuality Ex: Rebecca West, Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy Richardson
-Dorothy
– in her “Pilgrimage” expressed female consciousness ·Jean Rhys, AS Byatt,
Margaret Drabble, Christine Brooks Rose, Brigid Brophy.
-Woolf
remarked that Richardson Dorothy has invented the psychological sentence of the feminine gender.
-Showalter
a feminist Poetics lecture was published in her “Women’s writing and Writing about women (1979)” and repainted in” The New Feminist Criticism (1981)
Her
other Works:
The Female Malady
(1985)
Sister’s Choice (1989)
-Sexual Anarchy: Gender
& Culture at the finde siecle (1990)
-“Feminism &
Literature” (essay)
-She
edited anthologies of
--“Daughters of
Decadence (1993)”
--“Victorian feminist
stories”
--“Women’s liberation
and literature (1971)”
Sandra Mortola Gilbert
& Susan David Gabar
-“The
Mad Women in the Attic (1979)-
-Bertha
Rochester, the mad woman in the Charles Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” is the inspiration
for this.
-This
book is concerned with the Harold Bloom’s “anxiety of authorship” in women due to the belief that literary creativity is
an exclusively male prerogative.
-No man’s land: The
place of the women writer in the twentieth Century (1988-89)
Nina Baym
-“Woman’s Fiction: A
Guide to Novels by and about
Women in America,
1820-1870 (1978)”
Virginia Woolf
-A Room of One’s Own
(1929) – Essay
-First
to see socio-economic dimension in women writing.
-she
hoped balance between male & female sexuality by using “Androgyny” concept
of Coleridge.
-Stresses
the need for a 500 pounds a year and a room of one’s own to write the
Literature
-Three guineas is sequel to it.
-Professions for women (essay): she
points out 2 obstacles for career
1. she
was imprisoned by the ideology that a woman should be “The angel in the house”
2. Taboos
that prevent women from “telling the truth about her own experiences as a body”
Mary Ellmann
Modern
feminist Criticism in America, began with her “Thinking about Women (1968)”
-She
mocks at Walter Pater’s absurd notion of “Manliness in Art”.
-She
observes the Ivy Compton Burnett’s novels and also draws attention to Jane
Bowels” Two serious ladies” (1943) a
comic novel
Simon De Beavoir
-French
Materialist feminist
-Lifelong
friend of Jean Paul Satre
-She
highlights capitalism & Patriarchy.
-In
her “The Second sex (1972) she raises
some of the fundamental questions of modern feminism. It provided the theoretical
basis for the materialist criticism.
-Pointed
out the basic asymmetry b/w Masculine & Feminine.
-she
rejects the concept that women are contingent beings, Men are essential subjects
-She
define herself, starts by saying “I am a
women, one is not born woman, rather becomes a women in the Second Sex (Simon
de Beavoir)”
-She
examines patriarchal traditions that control material and economic conditions
that oppress women
-Ex:
Women are unpaid for domestic jobs. She quotes Aristotle & St. Thomas about
female inferiority-sees women as object,
-Says,
“He is the subject, He is the absolute,
She is the other second sex.”
-The Ethics of Ambiguity: An
Existentialist Ethics(1947)- an essay in three
parts. It is her second major non-fiction work based on her lecture in 1945.
French Psychoanalytic
Feminism.
-Based
on Patriarchy’s psychological influence on women; including unconscious
oppression.
-They
rejected Freud’s “Penis- envy which argues that female child seeing the male
organ, recognizes herself as female, because she lacks the Penis and suffers
from “Penis-envy” which results in Castration Complex”
-According
to Freud, “women is castrated man”.
-Id, Ego and Super Ego
are concepts of Freud.
Judith Mitchell:
-“Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1975)” reacted
against Freud’s view of woman as nothing, in herself But only measurable in
relation to male
Julia Kristeva:
(1941---)
-Bulgarian
born French Philosopher.
-adopted
Plato’s idea of Chora (=womb) as a
metaphor for the relationship b/w the mother & child in her” Revolution in Poetic Language (1974)”
-Coined
the term “Intertexuality”- texts are
constituted by Tissue of Citations
-
She wrote 30 books, first book is Semiotic
(1969)
-“Women can never be defined” – is an
interview (1974)
-distinguished
b/w symbolic & Semiotic modes
--Symbolic-
with symbols
--Semiotic-
No linguistic aspect
-Kristeva
says avant-garde poet enters the body of mother and resists the “Name of
father”
-Her
doctoral thesis is “Revolution in Poetic
language (1974)”
Semi analysis: She
created study of “Semi analysis” a combination of Freud’s Psychoanalysis &
Saussure’s semiotics
Abjection:
It is a concept of psychoanalysis. Her big theory was “Theory of Abject” about
the body’s way of managing urine, saliva, tears and other fluidly things in her
essay “The Power of Horror: An Essay on
Abjection (1980)”
-It
explains the formation and maintenance of subjectivity, i.e., development of
“I”, in early infancy.
-In
France she worked with Goldmann (Marxist critic), Ronald Barthes (literary
critic) and Levi straws (structuralist) and also with a Journal named “Tel Quel”
-Her
semiotics is related to the Pre-Oedipal stage (Freudian) or Pre-Mirror stage
(Lacanian) tied to instincts namely emotions.
Intertextuality
-Inter
relationship between texts.
-Coined
by Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian French Critic,
-It
is shaping a text’s meaning by another text.
-From
Dialogism of Bakhtin & structuralism Saussure
-Kristeva
says texts are constituted by “Tissue of
Citations”
-In
Intertexuality, the meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader,
but medicated through “Codes”
Some figures of
intertextuality
Allusion:
referring indirectly to an object/event/ story/ person make comparison in
readers mind ship name “Pequod” in
Moby dick well is known to North Americans.
Plagiarism:
From Latin word Plagiarians (Kidnapers).
Stealing of publication of another authors’ language, thought, ideas by exposing
it as their own work.
Quotation:
quoting an expression along with its source
Calque (-borrow): Long
translation of a word / phrase borrowed from another language (Generally used
as verb)
Translation: Communication
of the meaning of a source language text to a target language text
Pastiche:
imitation of Style (or) character of a work. Unlike parody, rather more mocks,
it imitates.
Three types of
intertexuality:
These
references enhance the readers depth to text, (depends on intention author,
significance of reference)
1.
Obligatory
– without Pre-understanding the “hypotext”, understanding” the “hypertext” is
inadequate Ex: Tom stoppard’s play” Rosencrantz & Guidemster are dead” @
2. Optional:
Less impact on the significance of the hyper best. It reader knows the
relationship, the connection will slightly shift the understanding of the text.
Ex: JK Rowlings Novels JRR Tolkeins” Lord of the Rings” -They both have an
aging mentor, Young protagonist, a key friendship group and quest to defeat a
powerful wizard. But this connection is not vital in understanding the
Rowling’s.
3.
Accidental
The Writer has no intention of intertextuality But readers Personal experience
makes difference Ex: In Moby Dick’s – The reader may use his Experience to compare
the size of the whale and the size of the ship
Helen Cixous (1937----)
-French
Philosopher as Psychoanalytic critic.
-best
known for her article “The Laugh of
Medusa(1976)” which considered as a celebrated manifesto of Women’s writing.
-In
this essay she says women must write through their.
-she
wants women to be feminine and female instead of and bodies as proposed by
Woolf. Instead she proposes the other bisexual.
-she
coined the term “écriture feminine”
in her essay
“The
Laugh of Medusa”
-says
men are fired between Medusa (Greek myth) & Abyss (Freudian Myth)
|
Myth of Medusa: Medusa
is a beautiful woman, raped, killed and beheaded by various gods. She is
portrayed as monster with hair of 1000 snakes, whose glance will turn
anything into a stone. Her pride in her beauty, made her like a monster. |
-She
says language reveals “Patriarchal
binary thought”,” seeing the world in polar opposites where one is superior
and other inferior.
Luice Irigary
-Belgium
born French psychoanalytic feminist.
-She
says women’s functions are mirrors for men.
-Argues
that psychoanalytical repression happens through language maker of women speak.
Her
works:
-Speculum of the Woman
(1974)
-This sex which is not one (1977)-collection
of 11 essays
Christine Delphy
-French
materialist feminist
-“Towards a materialist Feminism” –
article is about the oppression of wives.
-Her
ideas are based on “Marxism” says Marriage is a labor Contract for unpaid work.
Dolores Hayden
-The Grand Domestic
Revolution
Colette Guillaumin
-French
materialist Feminist
-Argues
that men are viewed only by their Job in society &, Women only by their
sex.
-Idea of “Sexage”: Women’s Slavery as a
part of objectification
Monique Wittig:
(1935-2003)
-French
Author, radical feminist) who coined phrase” Hetero Sexual Contract”
-She
called herself a Radical Lesbian.
-The
Straight mind and other essays (1979) Collection of essays
-Trojan
Horse – theory of literature as war machine
-In
“One Is Not Born a Woman“ (Essay-
originally published 1981), Monique Wittig argues that gender is not natural or
innate, but rather something that is socially constructed.
-According
to Wittig, women are not born, but
rather they are made through the various ways that society tells them what
it means to be a woman.
Novels:
-
L’Opoponax (1964)- Her first novel
-Les
Guerilleres (1969)- Her 2nd Novel, land mark in lesbian feminism.
Political feminism
Kate Millet
-Launched
Political feminism with her sexual
Politics (1970)
-She
used the term Patriarchy (= rule of father)” to depict cause of women’s
oppression
Norman Mailor
The Prisoner of sex
(1971) – attacks the failure of Millet’s
Shulamith Fire stone:
radical feminist
The Dialects of sex:
The case for feminist Revolution (1970)
-The
goal of the feminist revolution, she wrote, must be "not just the elimination of male privilege but of the sex distinction
itself" so that genital differences no longer have cultural
significance.
Michael Barret
“Women’s Oppression
Today: Problems in Marxist & Feminist Analysis”
Terril Moi
-Norwegian,
second wave feminist
-The Feminist Reader
-The Sexual/Textual
Politics (1985)
-Sex, Gender and the
body- essays from her
What is a women?
Judith Pamela Butter
– American
-Coined
the term “ Gender Performativity”
-Her
famous work is “ Gender Trouble”
-“Gender is not to culture, as sex is to
nature”
Cora Kalpan
-Marxist Feminist Cutic
-Sea Changes Culture & feminism (1986)
Anne Rosalind Jones
Imaginary Gardens with
real frogs in them: Feminist euphoria and Franco-American divide (1976-88)
Maggie Humm
Feminisms: A Reader
Eco-feminism
-It
is an analysis of the role attributed to women in fantasies of the natural
environment by mate authors as well the study of specific feminine Conceptions
of the environment in the neglected nature writings by female authors.
-Term
coined by French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974)
-Vandana
Shiva is often reffered to as Gandhi of
grain. She wrote the article Empowering Women(2004); Ecofeminism(1993) with
Maria Mies(co-author)
-The
writings of Annette Kolodny (Ame.Critic) gave impetus to what has come to be
called Eco-feminism.
-Her
work- “The Lay of the hand: Metaphor as
experience and History in American life and letters (1975)
-stresses
male authored literature gendering of the land as female.
-Parallel
b/w domination & subjugation of women and the exploitation and spoliation
of the land.
-Devastation
of natural scene is figured in detail as the rape of a virgin
-The hand
before her fantasy and experiences of the American Frontiers (1680-1866) –
1984” traditional representation of the frontier by male authors and
neglected narratives about the frontiers by Women
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