9. Literature and Feminism:
1. Feminism has been ‘literary’ from the
very beginning itself as it realised the
significance of the images of women
promulgated by literature.
2. The representation of women in
literature is one of the most important
forms of ‘socialisation’, since it provided
the role models which indicated to
women, and men, what constituted
acceptable versions of the ‘feminine’ and
legitimate feminine goals and
aspirations.
10. Gynocriticism refers to a kind of criticism with
woman as writer/producer of textual meaning, as
against woman as reader (feminist critique).
(Elaine Showalter in Towards a Feminist
Poetics), for example, Patricia Meyer Spacks‘
The Female Imagination, Ellen Moers‘ Literary
Women, Elaine Showalter’s A Literature of their
Own and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The
Madwoman in the Attic.
11. Three phases of feminism: the
“feminine” 1840-80 (women writers
imitate men), the “feminist” 1880-1920
(women advocated minority rights and
protested), and the “female” 1920s (the
focus is now on women’s texts as
opposed to merely uncovering
misogyny in men’s texts). (Elaine
Showalter)