Feminist criticism

FEMINISM: THE 1960S... RIGHT?

• 1792: Mary Wollstonecraft
• 1911: Olive Schreiner
• 1929: Virginia Woolf
• 1949: Simone de Beauvoir
• Early 1960s US: second-wave feminism

FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM

• Feminist principles and ideological discourses used to critique literature
• Distinction: Feminist-Female-Feminine
• 1970s: focus mainly on sexual inequality
• Shift in focus: Androtexts >>> Gynotexts
• 1980s: 3 changes in FLC

PHASES IN HISTORY OF WOMEN'S WRITING

• Feminine phase 1840-1880
• Feminist phase 1880-1920
• Female phase 1920 onwards

AREAS OF DEBATE AND DISAGREEMENT IN FLC

• The role of theory
• The nature of language
• The value of psychoanalysis

FEMINIST CRITICISM AND THE ROLE OF THEORY: ANGLO-AMERICAN FEMINISTS

• Focus on traditional critical concepts
• Emphasis on use of historical data and non-literary materials
• Overlap with humanist approach
• Highest point in late 1970s

FEMINIST CRITICISM AND THE ROLE OF THEORY: ENGLISH FEMINISTS

• 'Socialist feminist'
• Key works: mid-1980s, still active
• Strong political and theoretical interests

FEMINIST CRITICISM AND THE ROLE OF THEORY: FRENCH FEMINISTS

• Focus on language, representation, psychology
• Major philosophical issues as a starting point
• post-structuralists' insights

FEMINIST CRITICISM AND LANGUAGE

• Inherently feminine language?
• Man's sentence vs woman's sentence?
• Julia Kristeva: symbolic vs semiotic
• Écriture féminine

FEMINIST CRITICISM AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

• 1969- Millet: Freud prime source of patriarchal attitudes
• 1974- Mitchell defends Freud
• 1982- rehabilitation of psychoanalysis: from Freudian to Lacanian variety
• French & British feminists vs American feminists