Literary Theory
Key Terms
Suffragette - a woman seeking the right to vote through organised protest.
Patriarchy - a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
Misogyny - dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
Key People
Susan Bordo
Judith Butler
Simone de Beauvoir
Betty Friedan
Germaine Greer
Anne Summers
Mary Wollstonecraft
Key Works
The Feminine Mystique by
"If you've never read it, read it now." --Arianna Huffington, O, The Oprah Magazine Landmark, groundbreaking, classic--these adjectives barely do justice to the pioneering vision and lasting impact of The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, it gave a pitch-perfect description of "the problem that has no name": the insidious beliefs and institutions that undermined women's confidence in their intellectual capabilities and kept them in the home. Writing in a time when the average woman first married in her teens and 60 percent of women students dropped out of college to marry, Betty Friedan captured the frustrations and thwarted ambitions of a generation and showed women how they could reclaim their lives. Part social chronicle, part manifesto, The Feminine Mystique is filled with fascinating anecdotes and interviews as well as insights that continue to inspire. This 50th-anniversary edition features an afterword by best-selling author Anna Quindlen as well as a new introduction by Gail Collins.
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ISBN: 0393346781Publication Date: 2013-09-03
The Second Sex by
Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir's masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of "woman," and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir's pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.
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ISBN: 0679724516Publication Date: 1989-12-17
The Female Eunuch by
The clarion call to change that galvanized a generation. When Germaine Greer'sThe Female Eunuchwas first published it created a shock wave of recognition in women, one that could be felt around the world. It went on to become an international bestseller, translated into more than twelve languages, and a landmark in the history of the women's movement. Positing that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation, Greer looks at the inherent and unalterable biological differences between men and women as well as at the profound psychological differences that result from social conditioning. Drawing on history, literature, biology, and popular culture, Greer's searing examination of women's oppression is a vital, passionately argued social commentary that is both an important historical record of where we've been and a shockingly relevant treatise on what still remains to be achieved.
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ISBN: 0374527628Publication Date: 2002-03-05
Damned Whores and God's Police by
Sexual harassment, domestic violence and date rape had not been named, although they certainly existed, when Damned Whores and God's Police was first published in 1975. That was before the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 and before large numbers of women became visible in employment, in politics and elsewhere across society. It was in this climate that Anne Summers identified 'damned whores' and 'God's police', the stereotypes that characterized all women as being either virtuous mothers whose function was to civilize society or bad girls who refused, or were unable, to conform to that norm and who were thus spurned and rejected. These stereotypes persist to this day, argues Anne Summers in this updated version of her classic book.
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ISBN: 1742234909Publication Date: 2016-05-01
Feminism
Overview
Feminist theory has developed from the tradition of the late 19th century suffragette movements and emerges as an approach to literary critique through the mid-20th century. Feminist critics explore the social roles, experiences, interests, and politics of women as represented in literary texts. Its aim is to examine the explicit and implicit ways in which women’s roles have been portrayed and highlight inherent inequality that exists within patriarchal society. Moreover, feminist theory may also explore notions of misogyny and omission that may be seemingly naturalised in the experiences and interactions of the everyday..
What Feminist Critiques do
Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscover of texts written by women.
Revalue women's experiences.
Examine representations of women in literature by both men and women.
Challenge representations of women as 'Other'.
Examine power relations
What Questions to Feminist Critiques ask
How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
What are the power relationships between male and female characters?
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 of patriarchy?
Does the text work to reinforce or challenge patriarchal ideology?
What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?
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 does the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary tradition?
General Web Links
- In our time, feminism In this BBC radio interview, Melvyn Bragg examines the rise of Feminism and the subsequent empowerment of women in the 20th century. Interviewees include Dr Helena Cronin and Dr Germaine Greer.
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- Sisterhood and after Listen to the voices of feminists at the forefront of the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s and 80s and explore the themes of the Women's Liberation Movement with the resources provided by the British Library. Feminism.
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- Voice of feminism's second wave This Washington Post article describes how Betty Friedan, writer, thinker and activist, revived feminism with her 1963 book 'The Feminine Mystique' and helped found the National Organisation for Women, the largest organisation in the women's movement.
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