this essay offers a very basic introduction to feminist literary theory, and a compendium of great writers inspire resources that can be approached from a feminist perspective. It provides suggestions for how material on the great writers inspire site can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about feminist approaches to literature. The resources can also be found via the 'feminist approaches to literature' start page. Further material can be found via our library and via the various authors and theme pages.

the a level context

for both the a2 reflections in literary studies unit and the extended comparative essay, it is helpful to approach a collection of texts from a thematic rather than period or writer based approach. First wave feminist criticism includes books like marry ellman's thinking about women 1968 kate millet's sexual politics 1969 , and germaine greer's the female eunuch 1970. An example of first wave feminist literary analysis would be a critique of william shakespeare's taming of the shrew for petruchio's abuse of katherina. second wave feminism: gynocriticism elaine showalter pioneered gynocriticism with her book a literature of their own 1977.

The first is the examination of female writers and their place in literary history. The second is the consideration of the treatment of female characters in books by both male and female writers. The third and most important aspect of gynocriticism is the discovery and exploration of a canon of literature written by women gynocriticism seeks to appropriate a female literary tradition. She proposes the following three phases of women's writing:

The 'female' phase during the 'female' phase, women writers were no longer trying to prove the legitimacy of a woman's perspective. Rather, it was assumed that the works of a women writer were authentic and valid. The female phase lacked the anger and combative consciousness of the feminist phase.

do you agree with showalter's 'phases'? how does your favourite female writer fit into these phases? the madwoman thesis made famous by sandra gilbert and susan gubar's the madwoman in the attic 1979 , the eponymous madwoman is bertha jenkins of charlotte brontë's jane eyre.

Gilbert and gubar's thesis suggests that because society forbade women from expressing themselves through creative outlets, their creative powers were channelled into psychologically self destructive behaviour and subversive actions. A great example of the madwoman thesis in action is in charlotte perkins gilman's 1892 short story the yellow wallpaper. Are there connections between jane's subversive thoughts and bertha's appearances in the text? how does it change your view of the novel to consider bertha as an alter ego for jane, unencumbered by societal norms? look closely at rochester's explanation of the early symptoms of bertha's madness. How do they differ from his licentious behaviour? french feminism, led by critics such as julia kristeva, hélène cixousx, and luce irigaray, relies heavily on freudian psychology and the theory of penis envy how does jane austen fit into french feminism? she uses very concise language, yet speaks from a woman's perspective with confidence. Simon swift of the university of leeds gives a podcast titled 'how words, form, and structure create meaning: women and writing' that uses the works of virginia woolf and silvia plath to analyse the form and structural aspects of texts to ask whether or not women writers have a voice inherently different from that of men podcast part 1 and part 2 . Cameron discusses the differences and similarities in use of the english language between men and women.

In another of professor paul fry's podcasts, queer theory and gender performativity. Fry discusses sexuality, the nature of performing gender 1 , and gendered reading 4. How do more modern a level set texts, like those of margaret atwood, zora neale hurston, or maya angelou, fit into any of these traditions of criticism?

depictions of women by men

students could begin approaching great writers inspire by considering the range of women depicted in early english literature: from chaucer's bawdy 'wife of bath' in the canterbury tales to spenser's interminably pure una in the faerie queene. How might the reign of queen elizabeth i have dictated the way elizabethan writers were permitted to present women? how did each male poet handle the challenge of depicting women? by 1610 thomas middleton and thomas dekker's the roaring girl presented at the fortune a play based on the life of mary firth.

Essays for Mentorship

Smith breaks down both the gender issues of the play and of the real life accusations against mary frith. A frequent a level set text, smith discusses webster's treatment of female autonomy. Placing middleton or webster's female characters against those of shakespeare could be brought to bear on a level paper 4 on drama or paper 5 on shakespeare and other pre 20th century texts. Smith's podcast on the comedy of errors from 1 alludes to the valuation of elizabethan comedy as a commentary on gender and sexuality, and how the comedy of errors at first seems to defy this tradition. What are the differences between depictions of women written by male and female novelists? students can compare the works of charlotte and emily brontë or jane austen with, for example, hardy's tess of the d'ubervilles or d. How do lawrence's sexually charged novels compare with what emma smith said about webster's treatment of women's sexuality in the duchess of malfi. Abigail williams' podcast on jonathan swift's the lady's dressing room discusses the ways in which swift uses and complicates contemporary stereotypes about the vanity of women.

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rise of the woman writer

with the movement from renaissance to restoration theatre, the depiction of women on stage changed dramatically, in no small part because women could portray women for the first time. What were the feminist advantages and disadvantages to women's introduction to the stage? the essay who is aphra behn? addresses the transformation of behn into a feminist icon by later writers, especially bloomsbury group member virginia woolf in her novella/essay a room of one's own. How might woolf's description and analysis of behn indicate her own feminist agenda? behn created an obstacle for later women writers in that her scandalous life did little to undermine the perception that women writing for money were little better than whores. In what position did that place chaste female novelists like frances burney or jane austen. To what extent was the perception of women and the literary vogue for female heroines impacted by samuel richardson's pamela.

Students could examine a passage from pamela and evaluate richardson's success and failures, and look for his influence in novels with which they are more familiar, like those of austen or the brontë sisters. She discusses eliot's use of women as scapegoats to illustrate the injustice of the distribution of happiness in victorian england.

women writers and class

can women's financial and social plights be separated? how do jane austen and charlotte brontë bring to bear financial concerns regarding literature depicting women in the 18th and 19th century? how did class barriers affect the work of 18th century kitchen maid and poet mary leapor.

Listen to the podcast by yale's professor paul fry titled the classical feminist tradition. At , fry questions whether or not any novel can be evaluated without consideration of financial and class concerns, and to what extent virginia woolf's a room of one's own suggests a female novelist can only create successful work if she is of independent means. What are the different problems faced by a wealthy character like austen's emma. Maybe i am wrong, but it seems like some of these answers don 039 t really understand your question. You have been assigned a literary piece and are required to write a critical response to the literary piece in the vein of feminist criticism.

Academic Writing Exercises With Answers

If this is the case, you are not being asked to create a dialogue on weather you believe in feminism. If you do you have missed the point of the essay completely, and will probably fail the assignment. To be honest weather or not you agree with feminism its important to be able to interpret all sorts of literature from different perspectives so as to have a deeper understanding of the novel. As an english major i am constantly asked to look at things from a marxist perspective, feminist perspective, new historical perspective, etc. If you don 039 t agree with feminist perspective then this will be good practice to understand your opposition and thus more affectively argue your point. Anyway what you need to is take the female characters in the novel and examine the novel 039 s treatment of them. Ask your self how this woman is portrayed? is she a fully fleshed out character or is she a shallow caricature of a masculine interpretation of a woman.

How is she treated in relation to other character 039 s does she have agency? what are the roles of women in the novel? what kind of relationships do they have in society? what is expected of them? how are they portrayed in terms of sexuality? i have a few essays on my website which are an example of what your professor is asking you to do. Check it out if your still confused

suggested resources

this page is brought to you by the owl at purdue . This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy. Case tompkins, libby chernouski, elizabeth boyle feminist criticism is concerned with .

Gfp Review Article

The ways in which literature and other cultural productions reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women tyson. This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal male dominated and . This critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women richter 1346. This misogyny, tyson reminds us, can extend into diverse areas of our culture: perhaps the most chilling example. Is found in the world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been tested on male subjects only 83. Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization such as the exclusion of women writers from the traditional literary canon: . Unless the critical or historical point of view is feminist, there is a tendency to under represent the contribution of women writers tyson 82 83.

common space in feminist theories

though a number of different approaches exist in feminist criticism, there exist some areas of commonality. feminist criticism has, in many ways, followed what some theorists call the three waves of feminism:

first wave feminism

a vindication of the rights of women

second wave feminism