Feminist Literary Criticism

DR. DENIZ GUNDOGAN IBRISIM

DENIZ.GUNDOGAN@BOUN.EDU.TR
 Elaine Showalter “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness”
 Cixous “The Laugh of Medusa”
 Susan Lanser, “Toward a Feminist Narratology.” Style 20, no. 3 (1986): 341–63.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/42945612.
 Jale Parla, Kadın Eleştrisi
 Şenay Kara “Angela Carter’dan Bir Kırmızı Başlıksız Kız Öyküsü: Toplumsal Cinsiyet
Rollerini Öğretme Aracı Olarak Masallar”
Feminist criticism is concerned with "the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions)
reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson
83). This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal (male
dominated) and aims to expose misogyny in writing about women, which can take explicit and implicit
forms.

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" (85).
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 underrepresent the contribution of women writers" (Tyson 84).
Though a number of different approaches exist in feminist criticism, there exist some areas of
commonality. This list is excerpted from Tyson (92):
Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and psychologically; patriarchal
ideology is the primary means by which women are oppressed.
In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined only by her
difference from male norms and values.
All of Western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, for example, in the
Biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the world.
While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender (scales of masculine
and feminine).
All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the
world by prompting gender equality.
Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience, including the production
and experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not.
Feminist criticism has, in many ways, followed what some theorists call the three waves of feminism:

1.First Wave Feminism - late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of
Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull
contribute to the women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920 with the passing
of the Nineteenth Amendment.
2.Second Wave Feminism - early 1960s-late 1970s: building on more equal working conditions necessary in
America during World War II, movements such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966,
cohere feminist political activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949) and Elaine Showalter
established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights
movement.
3. Third Wave Feminism - early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over generalized,
over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle class focus of second wave feminism, third
wave feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories (see below) to
expand on marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to "...reconcile it
[feminism] with the concerns of the black community...[and] the survival and wholeness of her people,
men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of
women and of all the varieties of work women perform" (Tyson 107)

4. 4th Phase or Wave?

How 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 does the work play in terms of women's literary history and literary tradition?
 Critical Methodology

 A feminist literary critic resists traditional assumptions while reading a text. In addition to
challenging assumptions which were thought to be universal, feminist literary criticism
actively supports including women's knowledge in literature and valuing women's
experiences. The basic methods of feminist literary criticism include:
 Identifying with female characters: By examining the way female characters are
defined, critics challenge the male-centered outlook of authors. Feminist literary criticism
suggests that women in literature have been historically presented as objects seen from a
male perspective.
 Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is read: By revisiting the
classic literature, the critic can question whether society has predominantly valued male
authors and their literary works because it has valued males more than females.
 CRITICAL CONCERNS AND METHODS

 Describing relationships between the literary text and ideas about power and
sexuality and gender
 Critique of patriarchal or woman-marginalizing language, such as a "universal" use of the
masculine pronouns "he" and "him" Deconstructing the way that women characters are
described in novels, stories, plays, biographies, and histories, especially if the author is
male.
 Deconstructing how one's own gender influences how one reads and interprets a text, and
which characters and how the reader identifies depending on the reader's gender.
 Deconstructing how women autobiographers and biographers of women treat their
subjects, and how biographers treat women who are secondary to the main subject.
 CRITICAL CONCERNS AND METHODS

 Reclaiming women writers who are little known or have been marginalized or
undervalued, sometimes referred to as expanding or criticizing the canon—the usual list
of "important" authors and works.
 Reclaiming the "female voice" as a valuable contribution to literature, even if formerly
marginalized or ignored Analyzing multiple works in a genre as an overview of a feminist
approach to that genre: for example, science fiction or detective fiction Analyzing
multiple works by a single author (often female).
 Examining how relationships between men and women and those assuming male and
female roles are depicted in the text, including power relations Examining the text to find
ways in which patriarchy is resisted or could have been resisted
 Embodying or Undercutting Stereotypes

 Feminist literary criticism recognizes that literature both reflects and shapes
stereotypes and other cultural assumptions. Thus, feminist literary criticism
examines how works of literature embody patriarchal attitudes or undercut them,
sometimes both happening within the same work.
 Feminist theory and various forms of feminist critique began long before the
formal naming of the school of literary criticism. In so-called first-wave feminism,
the "Woman's Bible," written in the late 19th century by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
is an example of a work of criticism firmly in this school, looking beyond the more
obvious male-centered outlook and interpretation.
 Gynocriticism

 Gynocriticism, or gynocritics, refers to the literary study of women as writers. It is a

critical practice exploring and recording female creativity. Gynocriticism attempts to
understand women’s writing as a fundamental part of female reality. Some critics now use
“gynocriticism” to refer to the practice and “gynocritics” to refer to the practitioners.
 American literary critic Elaine Showalter coined the term "gynocritics" in her 1979
essay “Towards a Feminist Poetics.” Unlike feminist literary criticism, which might
analyze works by male authors from a feminist perspective, gynocriticism wanted to
establish a literary tradition of women without incorporating male authors. Showalter felt
that feminist criticism still worked within male assumptions, while gynocriticism would
begin a new phase of women’s self-discovery.
 Here is a list of scholars we encourage you to explore to
further your understanding of this theory:
 Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women,
1792
 Simone de Beauvoir - Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex),
1949
 Julia Kristeva - About Chinese Women, 1977
 Elaine Showalter - A Literature of Their Own, 1977; "Toward
a Feminist Poetics," 1979
 Deborah E. McDowell - "New Directions for Black Feminist
Criticism," 1980
 Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, 1983
 Lillian S. Robinson - "Treason out Text: Feminist Challenges
to the Literary Canon," 1983
 Camille Paglia - Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in
Literature and Art, 1990
 Elaine Showalter

 Elaine Showalter is an influential American critic famous for her conceptualization of

gynocriticism, which is a woman-centric approach to literary analysis,
 Her A Literature of their Own discusses the -female literary tradition which she analyses
as an evolution through three phases.
 She observes that literary “subcultures” (black, Jewish, Anglo-Indian) tend to pass
through these stages: 1) Iimitation of the modes of the dominant tradition and
internalization of the artistic and social values. 2) Protest against these standards
and values and a call for autonomy, 3) Self discovery — turning inward free from’
some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity.
 Elaine Showalter

 Showalter points out that although women writers since the beginning have shared a
“covert solidarity” with other women writers and their female audience; there was no
expressive communality or self-awareness before the 1840s.
 Even during the feminine phase, women writers did not see their writing as an expression
of their female experiences.
 Yet the repressive circumstances gave rise to innovative and covert ways to express their
inner life, and thus we have the mad woman locked in the attic, the crippled artist and the
murderous wife. Despite the restrictions, the novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot
talked about the daily lives and values of women within a family and community.
 In the feminist phase which denotes political involvement, women writers questioned the
stereotypes and challenged the restrictions of women’s language, denounced the ethic of
self-sacrifice and used their fictional dramatization of oppression to bring about social and
political changes. They embodied a “declaration of independence” in the female tradition
and stood up to the male establishment in an outspoken manner. Challenging the
monopoly of the male press, many feminist journals came into being, and some like
Virginia Woolf, controlled their own press.
 Feminist Criticism in Wilderness

 The essay by Elaine Showalter is an attempt to study the field of literary criticism
from the feminist point of view.
 Showalter has tried to study the various aspects of feminist criticism while also pointing
out the aims it should be trying to attain, the problems it faces and the reasons for these
problems.
 The essay considers the fact that like feminist creative writers, feminist critics also
face certain obstacles which have got highlighted after the rise of feminism.
 Showalter tries to analyze in detail the belief that feminist criticism is in wilderness,
which means, feminist critics are not capable enough to produce coherent
speculations.
 Showalter

 1. Pluralism and the Feminist Critique

 2. Defining the Feminine: Gynocritics and the Woman’s Text
 3. Defining the Feminine: Gynocritics and the Woman’s Text
 4. Women’s Writing and Women’s Language
 5. Women’s Writing and Woman’s Psyche
 . Women’s Writing and Women’s Culture

 what do you think of Showalter’s essay? How does she explain the above issues?
What are the stakes?
 Some points to consider…

 There are two modes of feminist criticism. Showalter calls the first one ‘feminist reading’
or ‘feminist critique’. It is concerned to the reading of texts to understand the image of
woman in literature and to work out the beliefs and stereotypes concerned to woman
highlighted and publicized by literary texts. This is a mode of interpretation and has been
quite influential in decoding the relationship of women to literature.
 Showalter points out that feminist criticism is revisionist being dependent on male
creative theory, i.e. the creative works and interpretations produced on the basis of
male experience. Feminist critics try to analyze and respond to male creative theory.
This need to be changed to achieve feminist criticism that is ‘women centred,
independent and intellectually coherent’.
 Women’s Body

 The metaphor of literary paternity used to be associated to penis and, thus, to male.
Showalter, however, associates it to womb comparing literary creativity to childbirth. The
level and implication of the mention of anatomy in text by male and female writers,
respectively, has also been different.

 However, study of biological imagery in women’s writings could be helpful only

when other factors affecting them are also kept in mind.
Women’s Writing and Women’s Language

 Whether men and women use language differently while creating texts.
 This studies if factors like biology, social preferences and cultural beliefs could affect the language of a gender.
It also considers the concept of ‘the oppressor’s language’, the use of language by men to dominate women.
 For woman, the popular language could be like a foreign language which she is unable to be comfortable with. So,
there is a call for development of separate feminine language. However, the irony is that even in communities where
women are believed to have developed a separate language, their language is marked by secrecy. The differences in
male and female speech in terms of ‘speech, intonation and language use’ are the most obvious examples of difference
in man’s and woman’s language.
 Feminist criticism should, most importantly, work for providing women an access to language so that a wide
range of words is available to them. Language is sufficient enough to give expression to women’s consciousness
only if she is not denied access to all the resources of language.

 what do you make of it? the ways of accessing language?

Women’s Writing and Women’s Culture

 The theory of culture as a factor affecting women’s writing is inclusive of the theories of biology, language
and psyche. The influence of all these factors is guided by the cultural situation of a woman. History has not
included female experience.
 Thus, history is inadequate to understand women’s experience. Woman’s culture is not a sub-culture
of main culture. They are part of general culture itself. If patriarchal society applies restraints on them,
they transform it into complementarity. Thus, women experience duality of culture including general culture
and women’s culture.
 History versus herstory
 Feminist critics try to identify the aspects of women writers which do not follow the trends established by
the male writers. For instance, Woolf’s works show tendencies other than those of modernism. However,
these tendencies are visible in the sections which have so far been considered obscure or imperfect. Feminist
critics should attempt ‘thick description’ of women’s writings. It is possible only when effect of gender and
female literary tradition are considered among the various factors that affect the meaning of the text.
Feminist Literary Criticism in
Turkish Literature
Jale Parla, Kadın Eleştirisi Neyi Gerçekleştirdi? (from
Kadınlar Dile Düşünce, by Jale Parla and Sibel Irzık)

How does Parla historicize feminist theory and criticism? What

are her arguments?

How does she trace back to Freudian theory and the phallus as
the symbol of masculine power and thus a lack for women?
Gaflet: Modern Türkçe Edebiyatın Cinsiyetçi Sinir Uçları

 edited by Sema Kaygusuz and Deniz Gündoğan İbrişim.. 2019, Metis.

 What do you make of the article ”Eril Aşkınlığın Ötesinde Öznellik, Yaratıcılık ve
Feminist Anlatıbilimin Gücü?”

 Eril aşkınlık?
 Erk kuyusu?
 Gendered lens toward texts?
 Feminist anlatıbilim, or feminist narratology?
 Feminist Narratology

 Why Feminist Narratology should be defined?

 Current notions of plot and plausibility as male-centered constructs masquerading as
universal norms. Thus,
 "Feminist narratology” has explored the implications of sex, gender, and/or sexuality for
understanding the “nature, form, and functioning of narrative” (Prince [1987] 2003: 65),
and thus also for exploring the full range of elements that constitute narrative texts.
Feminist narratology is thus also concerned with the ways in which various narratological
concepts, categories, methods and distinctions advance or obscure the exploration of
gender and sexuality as signifying aspects of narrative" (Taken from the living handbook
of narratology)
 What's feminism got to do with narrative criticism?
 a)Critique of gender norms and deconstruction of binary oppositions of gender,
sexuality, class, ethnicity and so forth with regards to FORM.
 b)The role of intersectionality and intersectional approach (how race, class,
history of colonialism, gender, sexuality intersect with one another) in narrative.
 c) Robyn Warhol's main assertion: "The more we can understand about
narrative's role in constitution of gender, the better positioned we are to change the
oppressive ways that gender norms work in the world" (13).
 Robyn Warhol's feminist approach to narrative:
 a)Gender conscious narrative poetics.
 Bringing feminist criticism of the universal knowledge claims with objectivity claims of
classical narratology. *Particular importance is attached to that which is repressed or
marginalized in narratives.
 b)Classical narratology's masculinist academic culture is challenged by examining
non-mainstream texts (mostly written by women).
 c)Includes the questions of history & context
 d)Apolitical narratology's self-consciousness is combined with feminist criticism's
explicit political agenda (60s, Second Wave Feminism):what questions does feminist
narratology bring to bear upon texts and how does it response them?
 Feminist Narratology

 Taking on a broader set of narratological issues, Susan Lanser asked “whether feminist
criticism, and particularly the study of narratives by women, might benefit from the
methods and insights of narratology and whether narratology, in turn, might be
altered by the understandings of feminist criticism and the experience of women’s
texts” (342).
 Lanser argued that narratology could help to offset an overly mimetic approach to
narrative by feminist readers and that, conversely, feminist studies could demonstrate the
utility of narratology for non-narratologists.
 A feminist methodological bridge between feminist criticism and narratology.
 Feminist Narratology

 Brings into focus the question of narrative voice and narrative authority that are not "genderless.

 b) Differentiation between private and public voices.

 c) Sense of double text/double construction: Surface text and Subtext

 •Surface text gives the reader the classical feminine voice of self-erasure and emotionality, whereas
subtext offers the reader masculine voice of authority.
 Reading them together brings forth:

 WHAT IS NOT SAID:

 EXCESS, PLOTLESSNESS,
 Politics of Feminist Narratology

 Resisting the single choice and thus novel readings of the surface text.
 a surface text may appear straightforward, and yet further investigation can show that it is rendered
problematic by other voices.
 Real meanings are concealed behind the dominant line of narration.
 What is seemingly NOT narrated in the text proves to be the real source of meaning.

 •The rhetorical complexity of the surface text signals that narrative meaning is a function of
narrative circumstance. There is not a purely formal and conceptual approaches to meaning in
narrative (challenge to Genette's).
 • A revised narrative poetics needed: including a comprehensive theory of voice, and
polyphony with paying attention to rhetorical context of narrative and the private and public
level of the narration.
 Politics of Feminist Narratology

 destabilizing the concept of gender in novels.

 opposing the idea of power of heterosexuality as a default interpretation: character traits,
relationship between characters, narrative surprises, narrators, gender and narrative voice,
gender ambiguity of narrators, alternative patterns, masculine time versus lyric timelessness
(Kristeva)
 including gender as an important analytical category to offer productive interpretations and
clarification of the limits of the narrative theory.
 challenging classical narratology's masculinist academic culture is challenged by examining non-
mainstream texts (mostly written by women).
 remapping narratology's apolitical self-consciousness: combined with feminist criticism's explicit
political agenda: what questions does feminist narratology bring to bear upon texts and how does it
response them?
 Limitations

 limitations that have become more evident in the wake of separate transformations in
feminist and narratological thought.
 Lanser also rests on a “binary model of gender that emphasize[s] difference” and tends
“to construct the category ‘women’ if it were a universal group,”
 most work on feminist narratology of the 1980s and 1990s rests on a canon of English,
American, and French writers that dates primarily to the 19 th and 20th centuries.
 challenging this limitation by focusing variously on plot patterns in medieval Japanese
and English texts, on. non-Western cultures, minority narratives.
 Angela Carter and The Snow Child
as a case study

 The Bloody Chamber (or The Bloody Chamber

and Other Stories) is a collection of short fiction by
Angela Carter . It was first published in the United
Kingdom in 1979.
 All of the stories share a common theme of being
closely based upon fairytales or folk tales
 Carter says: “My intention was not to do 'versions'
or, as the American edition of the book said,
horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent
content from the traditional stories."
 Angela Carter and Werewolf or Kurtkadın by Senay Kara?
Rewriting Fairy Tales from a Feminist
Perspective

 http://www.feministyaklasimlar.org/sayi-36-ekim-2018/mavisakaldan-kanli-odaya/

 https://biblioklept.org/2013/06/21/the-snow-child-angela-carter/
 Kadın Yazısı Festivali 2018

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
s7o1mTfXlSg

 Kadın Yazısı Festivali

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NDh56KASGDQ