1. International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, November, 2012, ISSN 0974- 2832, RNI- RAJBIL- 2009/29954; VoL IV * ISSUE- 46
Research Paper- English
Literature and Female Identity
* Gurbir Kaur November ,2012
* Research Scholar, Ph. D English C.M.J. University Shillong, Meghalaya
Literature and female identity are inseparable, as both handmaid, the female servant, the devotee who sub-
have influenced each-other from times immemorial. A mits to God in submitting to the male. We can multiply
more suitable phrase for "female identity" would be examples, but they would invariably lead us to the
"woman identity" as the term female, reduces a woman same conclusion. The absence or significance of the
to the biological dimensions of herself, whereas the feminine element throughout the work of an author is
word woman would include the female, the feminine, extremely important when it sums up in its totality all
the feminist, and all that which has been excluded uptil the aspects of the other as happens with Lawrence. It
now. None has bothered to find if there really exists remains important when woman is viewed simply as
anything called woman's identity. Many reasons are other but the writer is interested in the individual ad-
attributable to this course. History has shown us that venture of her life.
men have always kept in their hands all concrete pow- Some French feminist like Irigary, Julia
ers since the earliest days of the patriarchate they have Kristeva and Cixous have carried forward the legacy of
thought it best to keep women in a state of depen- Simon De Beauvoir but have given a radically different
dence, their codes of law have been set up against her meaning to the 'other' in literature. In French feminism
and thus she has been definitely established as the the woman identity is not the man's other as in Simone
other. We see woman as flesh, the flesh of male is De Beauvoir, but the other in herself. So she becomes
produced in the mother's body and re-created in the the other as subject not object. According to these
embraces of the woman. Thus woman is related to feminists, literature is the product of culture and our
nature, she incarnates it, she represents to man the existing culture is predominantly patriarchal. There is
fertile soil, she can be mediatrix between this world and a due need to locate women identity from a women's
the beyond. She is doomed to immanence and through perspective who is the other as subject. According to
her passivity she bestows peace and harmony. But if French feminist this can happen only if more and more
she declines this role she is seen forthwith as a praying enlightened and aware women take up to the writing of
mantis or an ogress. In all these cases she appears as literature. Such writings which would puncture the
the man's privileged 'other'. In literature the battle be- whole patriarchal notions and ideology behind woman
tween the sexes, the search for woman's identity is identity represented until now.
inevitably linked to the conflict between self and the Elaine Showalter further suggests a way out.
other. Infact there has been a large production of woman According to her woman can make a mark of their
stereotypes. The ideal woman is the one who incar- identity only when they can actively engage them-
nates most exactly the man's other. Cloudel defines her selves in the formulation and analysis of various criti-
as a soul-sister while Breton cherishes her rooted in cal theories. As per Showalter there are two distinct
nature. modes of feminist criticism and to conflate them is to
"A woman is not born, she becomes" says remain permanently bemused by their theoretical po-
Simone De Beauvoir. It is through the system of patri- tentialities. The first mode is ideological, it is con-
archy that men hold the position of the subject. A cerned with the feminist as reader and it offers feminist
subject from where the action originates. Women in the readings of the texts which consider the images and
repressive history have never asserted themselves as stereotypes of women in literature, the omissions and
women. A woman is not allowed to search her 'authen- misconceptions about women in criticism. A reader
tic self'. She is the victim of bad faith. There is a whole with feminine sensibility is bound to question Milton's
plethora of attitudes towards women which constraint silence on the role of women in his epic poem Paradise
her development as an independent identity. She is Lost. God, Satan both are male, the holy spirit has no
required in every case to forget self and then love. sex. Satan's army has all male angels. Where are women
Montherlant consents to a woman who gives up being in the whole episode. Did they never exist at that time.
herself for the man's sake and Clandel exalts the The second mode to locate authentic woman
SHODH, SAMIKSHA AUR MULYANKAN 1

2. International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, November, 2012, ISSN 0974- 2832, RNI- RAJBIL- 2009/29954; VoL IV * ISSUE- 46
identity is the study of women as writers and its sub- is male critical theory. The male critical theory keeps us
jects are history, styles, themes, genres and structures dependent upon it and retards our progress in solving
of writing by women, the psychodynamics of female women theoretical problems. So long the women will
creativity, the trajectory of the individual or collective look to andocentric models for our most basic prin-
female career and the evolution and laws of a female ciples- even if revised by adding feminist frame of
literary tradition. According to Showalter women can reference, we are learning nothing new. Our way of
make a mark of their identity only when they actively reading is so one-sided that when male critics boast of
engage themselves in the formulation and analysis of their ignorance of feminist criticism, it is disheartening
the various critical theories. She further suggests that to find feminist critics, still anxious for approval from
woman should trace genealogy of literature written by the white fathers'. It is time for feminist criticism to
women themselves. It is only when the critical faculty decide whether between religion and revision we can
of women is sharpened enough to pose an active resis- claim any firm theoretical ground for locating the au-
tance to patriarchal ways of reading. thentic woman identity. In calling for a feminist criti-
All feminist criticism is in some sense revi- cism that is genuinely women centered, independent
sionist, questioning the adequacy of accepted con- and intellectually coherent.
ceptual structures. The most exciting and comprehen- Showalter's insight is very useful but it needs
sive case for this "revisionary imperative" is made by to be improved with a dose of French feminist identity.
Sandra Gilbert. She asserts, feminist criticism 'wants to One has a lot to learn from woman's studies and from
decode and demystify all the disguised questions and international feminist theory. Question on women iden-
answers that have always shadowed the connections tity must be addressed and confronted, problems must
between textuality and sexuality, genre and gender, be discussed, questions be asked and answers be
psychosexual identity and cultural authority'. We can- soughted, as literature is a part of the struggle- a part
not find the true female identity until the norms for of the larger emancipation struggle.
critically judging the representation of female identity
R E F E R E N C E
1 Beauvoir, Simone de, The Second Sex, translated and ed. by H.M. Parshlay 1953, rpt London: Pan Books, 1988.
2 Showalter, Elaine (To New Feminist Criticism (1985) ed. Showalter) or (Feminist Criticism in Wilderness Pluralism and
Feminist Critique).
3 Gilbert, Sandra M., "What do Feminist Critics Want? A Postcard from the Volcano."
2