Feminist Criticism
We find the root of feminist criticism in ancient Greece in the works of Sappho and arguably in Aristophanes’ play ‘Lysistrata’, which depicts women as taking over the treasury in the Acropolis.
Mme.De stael the Brontes, Jane, Austen, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Margaret Fuller and Emily Dickinson were the major female literacy figures in both Europe and America.
After the Franch Revolution, Mary Wollstonecraft argued that the ideals of the revolution and Enlightenment should be extended to women, primarily through access to education.
For most of this long history, women were not only deprived of education and financial independence, they also had to struggle against a male ideology condemning them to virtual silence and obedience as well as a male literary establishment that poured scorn on their literary endeavors. Indeed, the depiction of women in male literature-as angles goddesses whores, obedient wives and mother figures- was an integral means of perpetuating these ideologies of gender.
Feminists have rejected the nations of objectivity and neutrality, feminists have pioneered a new honesty in acknowledging that they write from subjective positions informed by specific circumstance.
Possible Question from this chapter
1) What have feminists rejected?
Ans: The feminists have rejected male ways of viewing the world, and creating binaries. Similarly, they have also rejected literary theories which give importance to masculine presuppositions. Hence, feminists have called to rectify, rewrite and redefine all male generated concepts with conceptual fluidity and openness.
2) Who were the major nineteenth-century feminist critics?
Ans:- See second paragraph
3) What are the basic principles of feminist criticism?(VVI)
Ans:- The basic principles of feminist criticism are :-
a)Patriarchal idealogy has oppressed women economically, socially and psychologically.
b) Women are considered the second sex or "other (the male being the first ).
c) They are marginalized (not considered important) and objectified.
d) All the fields like arts, literature, religion, science, education, politics, economics, law, business,etc are products of patriarchal ideology.
e)Sex (male / female) is biological whereas gender (masculine feminine) is a product of patriarchal culture.
f) All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, aims at promoting equality, justice & the right of women.
g) Gender issues affect every aspect of human production and experience, including litearture.
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