This document discusses feminism in literature and how gender roles are portrayed. It defines feminism as distinguishing between sex and gender to argue that qualities of femininity are socially constructed rather than biological. Feminist analysis examines how patriarchy operates in different spheres including literature. Two examples are provided of "boy books" and "girl books" that exemplify typical narrative patterns for each gender. The document encourages analyzing literature in terms of the gender of characters, authors, intended audiences, and how plots are structured.

1. Feminism in
Literature
Martinez, John Patrick S.
(Student Teacher, English 10)

3. How to Play?
• Read the group of unrelated words
• Transform them into real phrases
before time runs out
• Type in the chat box your answer
Example:
SAD HEARD DAY
becomes
SATURDAY

4. GYM THERE BRAWLS

5. GENDER ROLES

6. ADD BRAIN CHEW ROSE

7. ADVENTUROUS

8. STIR AERO TURF PING

9. STEREOTYPING

10. FAITH THREE HEART KEY

11. PATRIARCHY

12. PAY ME KNEES SOME IN
LATE TREE CHORE

13. FEMINISM IN LITERATURE

14. What is Feminism?
Feminism believes it is
of vital importance to make a
distinction between sex and
gender, because when these
two categories are blurred into
each other the qualities of
femininity are naturalized. This
means that it becomes possible
to say women are meek, timid,
gentle and submissive with the
same authority that one can say
women have ovaries.

15. What is Feminism?
In fact, it becomes possible almost to say
that women have these qualities because they
have ovaries or just like they have ovaries – to
ascribe these qualities to biology and make them
see natural and inherent rather than constructed.
If women’s ‘weakness’ or ‘inferiority’ is a biological
fact, it can no longer be questioned and the
status quo can be maintained. This notion of the
construction of gender in unequal ways is at the
heart of feminism.

16. What is Feminism?
Feminism is too large a
term to cover here, because there
are very many feminisms. Indeed, it
is inaccurate to think of feminism as
one unified entity – the reality is that
there are different kinds of feminism
and not all of them agree on
everything.

17. What is Feminism?
All feminisms however, are
political discourses with gender
inequalities and their
consequences to women in
different spheres. Feminists over
the years have analyzed different
issues and brought to light the
workings of patriarchy in different
areas.

18. GENDER ROLES in LITERATURE

19. How Gender Roles work in Literature?
• Many people think that boys in our culture today are
brought up to define their identities through:
- heroic individualism
- competition
- separation from home, friends, and family
• Girls are brought up to define their identities
through:
- connection
- cooperation
- self-sacrifice
- domesticity

20. In Feminism we look for…
• Main Character’s Gender
• Author’s Gender
• Intended Audience’s Gender
• How the plot is laid out?

21. “Boy and Girl” Novels
1. Treasure Island

22. “Boy and Girl” Novels
1. Treasure Island
• The main character is a boy named,
“Jim”
• Authored by a Man and written for
boys
• Follows a literary pattern like that of
having a unified action that rises
toward a climax and then quickly
comes to an end. (P. Nodelman 124)
• Exemplifies the narrative patterns of
a “boy book”

23. “Boy and Girl” Novels
2. The Secret Garden

24. “Boy and Girl” Novels
2. The Secret Garden
• The main character is a girl named,
“Mary”
• Authored by a Woman and is written
for girls
• Follows two literary patterns like that
of having domestic events rather
than adventures, and many less-
intense climaxes rather than just
one. (P. Nodelman 124)
• Exemplifies the narrative pattern of
being a “girl book”

25. ACTIVITY TIME

26. ACTIVITY TIME
Look for…
• Gender of the Main Character
• Gender of the Author
• Intended Audience’s Gender
• How the plot is laid out?

27. The Courage that My Mother Had
by: Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
The golden brooch my mother wore
She left behind for me to wear;
I have no thing I treasure more:
Yet, it is something I could spare.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave!—
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
Look
for…
❑ Gender of
the Main
Character
❑ Gender of
the
Author
❑ Intended
Audience’
s Gender
❑ How the
plot is
laid out?

28. Look
for
…
❑ Gender
of the
Main
Character
❑ Gender
of the
Author
❑ Intended
Audience’s
Gender
❑ How
the plot
is laid
out?
For The 4th Grade, Prospect School: How
I Become a Poet
by: James Emanuel
My kite broke loose,
Took all my string
And backed into the sun.
I followed far as I could go
And high as I could run.
My special top went spinning
Down the gutter, down the drain.
I heard it gurgling sideways,
Saw it grinning in the rain,
My string wrapped around it
While I reached for it in vain.
My dog got thin and went away.
He took his leash – the wrapping string
That we pretended was a rope—
And went as far as he could hope
To find the sickbed where I lay.
And now, when I remember strings and
how they bind together things,
And how they stretch (like reach and run),
And hold (like hope) and give (like sun),
I tie together things I know
And wind up with a poem to show