| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Definition | Literary criticism examining gender inequality and patriarchal assumptions • How women represented in literature? • How gender shapes reading, writing, canon formation? • Recovery of women writers • Challenge male-dominated literary tradition |
| Two Main Approaches | 1. Images of Women: Critique misrepresentation in male-authored texts 2. Gynocriticism: Study women writers, women's literary tradition (Elaine Showalter) Both important but different focuses |
| Three Waves of Feminism | First Wave (late 18th-early 20th c.): Legal rights, suffrage, education Second Wave (1960s-80s): Workplace, sexuality, reproductive rights, literary criticism Third Wave (1990s-present): Diversity, intersectionality, queer theory, transnational Literary feminist criticism = mainly Second/Third Wave |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) | Founding feminist text • Women NOT naturally inferior - denied education makes them appear so • Argues for women's education, reason, autonomy • "I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves" • Response to Rousseau (who excluded women from education) |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| A Room of One's Own (1929) | ESSENTIAL feminist literary criticism text • Extended essay based on Cambridge lectures • "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" • Material conditions (economic independence, private space) necessary for women's writing |
| Shakespeare's Sister | Thought experiment: What if Shakespeare had equally talented sister? • "Judith Shakespeare" would have NO opportunities • Denied education, forced to marry, mocked for ambition • "Any woman born with great talent in 16th c. would have gone mad, shot herself..." • Demonstrates systemic barriers, not lack of talent |
| Androgyny | "It is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex" • Great mind is androgynous (Coleridge's idea) • Male/female elements balanced • Controversial: later feminists reject this (gender DOES matter) |
| Women and Fiction | • Women's literary tradition emerging (Austen, Brontës, Eliot) • Need to create "a woman's sentence" - not just imitate male forms • Recover lost women writers • Canon needs expansion |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| The Second Sex (1949) | FOUNDATIONAL Second Wave feminist text • Published 1949 (France), translated 1953 • Philosophical, existentialist analysis of women's oppression • Influenced ALL later feminist thought |
| Famous Quote | "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" • Gender = social construction, NOT biological essence • "Femininity" is taught, performed, imposed • Revolutionary idea: sex (biological) ≠ gender (cultural) • Foundation for later gender theory (Butler) |
| Woman as Other | Man = Subject, Self, Absolute; Woman = Other, Object, Inessential • Man defines himself; Woman defined by relation to Man • Woman = "the second sex" - derivative, inferior • Draws on Hegelian dialectic, Sartre's existentialism |
| Immanence vs. Transcendence | Men = Transcendence (freedom, project, create) Women = Immanence (trapped in body, domesticity, repetition) • Women denied transcendence by patriarchy • Must achieve economic independence, reject marriage/motherhood as sole identity |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Sexual Politics (1970) | "Politics" extends to personal/sexual realm • "The personal is political" (second wave slogan) • PhD thesis turned bestseller • Analyzed sexism in D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer |
| Patriarchy | Systematic male domination in all spheres • Political institution, not just individual prejudice • Operates through family, education, religion, literature • Literature reproduces/reinforces patriarchal ideology |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| A Literature of Their Own (1977) | History of women novelists in Britain (1800s-1970s) • Recovery project: establish women's literary tradition • Not marginal additions to male tradition, but THEIR OWN tradition |
| Gynocriticism | Showalter's term (1979) - study of women writers • "The female as producer of textual meaning" • Focus on women's writing, NOT just images in male texts • Women's literary history, themes, forms, language • Shift from critique of male writers to celebration of female writers |
| Three Phases of Women's Writing | 1. Feminine (1840-1880): Imitation of male tradition (Brontës) 2. Feminist (1880-1920): Protest, advocacy (Schreiner, Grand) 3. Female (1920-onward): Self-discovery, autonomy (Woolf, Lessing) Progression from imitation → protest → independence |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) | Feminist reading of 19th-century women writers • Title from Jane Eyre (Bertha Mason in attic) • HUGELY influential study |
| Anxiety of Authorship | Women writers face "anxiety of authorship" (not Bloom's "anxiety of influence") • Male tradition denies women authority to create • "The pen is a metaphorical penis" (male literary power) • Women struggle for legitimacy as writers • Literary history = male genealogy (fathers/sons) |
| Madwoman as Double | Mad/bad female character = author's rebellious double • Example: Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre's rage/rebellion) • Proper heroine = socially acceptable • Madwoman = repressed fury, desire for freedom • Women writers encode resistance through these doubles |
| Palimpsest | Women's texts contain hidden story beneath surface • Surface: conformity to patriarchal norms • Beneath: subversive, rebellious meaning • "Covers story" technique |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975) | MAJOR French feminist essay • Call for women to write from their bodies, experience • "Woman must write her self" - "écriture féminine" |
| Écriture Féminine | "Feminine writing" - writing the body • Fluid, multiple, non-linear, jouissant (blissful) • Opposes phallogocentric (male/reason/logic) discourse • Women's writing = disruptive, subversive of patriarchal language • NOT just by women, but embodying "feminine" principles |
| "Write Your Self" | • Women silenced for centuries • "Woman must put herself into the text - as into the world and into history - by her own movement" • Reclaim voice, body, sexuality |
| Medusa | Medusa not monstrous but laughing, beautiful • Male mythology: Medusa = castrating threat • Cixous: Medusa = powerful, joyful woman • Reclaim demonized feminine |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Critique of Phallocentrism | Western thought centered on masculine/phallic • Psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan) = male-centered • Woman defined as "lack" (no penis) • Irigaray: Need specifically FEMININE symbolic order |
| "This Sex Which Is Not One" (1977) | • Title = pun: woman's sex "not one" (multiple, plural) • Female sexuality NOT inferior/lacking but DIFFERENT • Two lips (multiplicity) vs. one phallus (singularity) • Essentialism debate |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Gender Trouble (1990) | REVOLUTIONARY gender theory text • Founded queer theory • Challenged feminist assumption of stable "woman" category |
| Gender Performativity | "Gender is performance, not essence" • No pre-existing gender identity - gender CREATED through repeated performance • Acts, gestures, speech PRODUCE gender (not express it) • "Gender is the repeated stylization of the body" • No "natural" or "original" gender - all is performance/construction |
| Compulsory Heterosexuality | Heterosexuality enforced as norm (Adrienne Rich's term, Butler develops) • Gender = effect of compulsory heterosexuality • "Coherent" gender (man=masculine, woman=feminine) = regulatory fiction • Drag reveals performativity (imitates no original) |
| Sex vs. Gender Collapse | Even biological "sex" is culturally constructed • Not just gender (cultural) but SEX (biological) is discursive • Sex/gender distinction collapses - both constructed • Radical challenge to earlier feminism |
| Impact | • Enabled transgender studies • Queer theory • Challenged essentialist feminism • Controversial within feminism |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Intersectionality | Gender intersects with race, class, sexuality • Can't analyze gender in isolation from race/class • White middle-class feminism ≠ universal women's experience • Black women face BOTH racism AND sexism • Term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), hooks elaborated |
| Feminist Theory (1984) | • Critique of white bourgeois feminism • Feminism must address racism, classism • Accessible writing style (not academic jargon) |
| lowercase name | • "bell hooks" (not capitalized) = pen name • Focuses attention on IDEAS, not individual ego |
| Approach | Key Figures | Focus | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Images of Women | Millett, Fetterley | How women represented in male texts | Critique stereotypes, misogyny |
| Gynocriticism | Showalter, Gilbert & Gubar | Women writers, women's tradition | Recovery, canon revision |
| French Feminism | Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva | Language, body, feminine writing | Écriture féminine, psychoanalysis |
| Materialist Feminism | Marxist feminists | Economic/class factors | Base/superstructure, labor |
| Gender Theory / Queer | Butler | Gender as performance, construction | Deconstruction, performativity |
| Intersectional | hooks, Crenshaw, Lorde | Race, class, gender intersection | Multiple oppressions, coalitions |
| Question Type | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| Wollstonecraft | Vindication of Rights of Woman (1792) - education, reason |
| Woolf's Famous Line | "A woman must have money and a room of her own" (1929) |
| Beauvoir's Famous Line | "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" (1949) |
| Showalter's Term | Gynocriticism (1979) - study of women as writers |
| Showalter's Three Phases | Feminine (imitation) → Feminist (protest) → Female (independence) |
| Gilbert & Gubar | Madwoman in the Attic (1979) - anxiety of authorship, doubles |
| Cixous Essay | "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975) - écriture féminine |
| Butler's Book | Gender Trouble (1990) - gender performativity |
| Butler's Key Idea | Gender = performance, not essence; "repeated stylization" |
| Intersectionality | Crenshaw (term, 1989), hooks, Lorde - race + gender + class |
| Second Wave Slogan | "The personal is political" (Millett) |
| Don't Confuse | Distinction |
|---|---|
| Sex vs. Gender (Traditional) | Sex = biological; Gender = cultural construction (Beauvoir) Butler: BOTH are constructed |
| Gynocriticism vs. Images of Women | Gynocriticism = study women writers; Images = critique male representations |
| Anglo-American vs. French Feminism | Anglo-American = practical, historical, recovery; French = theoretical, psychoanalytic, language |
| Second vs. Third Wave | Second = universal "woman"; Third = diversity, intersectionality, queer |
| Beauvoir vs. Butler | Beauvoir: "becomes a woman" (socialization); Butler: gender = performance (no essence at all) |
| Showalter's Phases | Feminine/Feminist/Female (NOT First/Second/Third Wave!) |
Feminist Criticism Complete
Woolf | Beauvoir | Showalter | Gilbert & Gubar | Cixous | Butler | hooks