This slideshow showcases the Feminist Criticism which helps the students to understand well the literary piece.

1. DE JESUS, KLIEN ZYRUS P.
GARGANTA, ANGELA A.
BSEd III-A
FEMINIST
CRITICISM
Lit 106: Literary Criticism

3. “One is not born,
but rather becomes, a
woman.”
~SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR~

5. Feminist Criticism is concerned
with the politics of women’s
condition within literature; this
includes the depiction of fictional
female characters.

6. It is also concerned with difference
and marginalization of women.

7. It focuses on understanding ways
gender roles are reflected or
contradicted by texts, how
dominance and submission play out
in the texts, and how gender roles
evolve in texts.

8. SEVEN TYPES
OF CONTEMPORARY
FEMINISTS

9. SOCIO FEMINISTS – study the
social roles of women in literature.

10. SEMIO FEMINISTS – study how
women are coded and classified
as women.

11. PSYCHO FEMINISTS – study the
psychoanalytic and mythic theories
of the feminine.

12. MARXIST FEMINISTS – view women
as members of the oppressed working
class

13. SOCIO-SEMIO-PSYCHO FEMINISTS
– study the psychoanalytic and mythic
theories of the feminine.

14. LESBIAN FEMINISTS – writing
metaphorically based on the female
body rather than the male.

15. BLACK FEMINISTS
- consists of blacks
- see themselves as most
oppressed

16. REBECCA WEST
 Pseudonym of Cicily Isabel
Andrews, was a British
journalist, novelist, and critic,
who was perhaps best known
for her reports on the Nürnberg
trials of war criminals.
 Her work on women’s suffrage
from approximately 1910 can
be traced as the beginning of
the feminist criticism
movement.

17. Feminist
Suffrage
Parade
in New
York
City, 6
May
1912

18. Louise
Weiss along
with other
Parisian
suffragettes
in 1935. The
newspaper
headline
reads "The
Frenchwom
an Must
Vote."

19. MARY
WOLLSTONECRAFT
Was an English writer
who advocated for
women's equality.
Her book A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman
pressed for educational
reforms.

20. SUSAN ANTHONY
Was a suffragist,
abolitionist, author and
speaker who was the
president of the National
American Woman
Suffrage Association.

21. VICTORIA
WOODHULL
 Was a spiritualist,
activist, politician and
author who was the first
woman to run for the
presidency of the
United States.

22. SIMONE DE
BEAUVOIR
French writer who laid the
foundation for the modern
feminist movement.
Also an existentialist
philosopher.
Her best-known work is
1949's The Second Sex, a
feminist text.

23. ELAINE
SHOWALTER
 American literary critic and
teacher, and founder of
gynocritics, a school of
feminist criticism concerned
with “woman as writer…with
the history, themes, genres,
and structures of literature
by women.”

24. ALICE WALKER
 Writers like Alice Walker work
to reconcile feminism with the
concerns of the black
community and the survival
and the wholeness of her
people, men and women both
and for the promotion of dialog
and community as well as for
the valorization of women and
of all the varieties of work
perform.

26. This approach examines images of women and
concepts of the feminine in myth and literature; uses
the psychological, archetypal, and sociological
approaches; often focuses on female characters that
have been neglected in previous criticism. Feminist
critics attempt to correct or supplement what they
regard as a predominantly male-dominated critical
perspective.

27. GENERAL PRECEPTS
AND ITS
UNDERPINNINGS

28. Precept # 1
Feminist Criticism looks
into how the patriarchal
system of society
marginalizes women as
depicted in literature.
Feminists believe that our
culture is a PATRIARCHAL
culture
• organized in favor of the
interest of men.
PATRIARCHY is an ideology
that privileges masculine
ways of thinking/points of
view and marginalizes
women politically,
economically and
psychologically.

29. More specifically, modern
feminist criticism deals with
those issues related to the
patriarchal programming within
key aspects of society including
education, politics, and the work
force.
It examines gender politics in
works and traces the subtle
construction of masculinity and
femininity, and their relative
status positioning and
marginalization within works.

30. Precept # 2
Feminist Criticism was
supported by Beauvoir.
According to her, Feminists
try to answer the following
questions:
 What is a woman?
--- ‘woman is a womb’
 “How is she constructed
differently from a man?”
--- The terms masculine
and feminine are used
symmetrically only as a
matter of form, as on legal
papers.

31. In actuality the relation of the
two sexes is not quite like
that of the electrical poles, for
man represents both the
positive and the neutral, as is
indicated by the common use
of man to designate human
beings in general; whereas
woman represents only the
negative, defined by limiting
criteria, without reciprocity.

32. There are also narratives
that show the stronger
character of women.
Ex. Adam and Eve Story, A
Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
and Medea
--- These narratives
portray women as heroine or
model.

33. Precept # 3
Feminist Criticism looks
into some biases used in
language and literature.
Feminism exposes
patriarchal nature of
language itself. This
involves usage that
denigrates or ignores
women. It also includes the
deeper view that a
masculine style of language
has suppressed feminine
one.

34.  Women’s language:
Women must use their own
language, for if women
continue to speak as men
do when they enter
discourse, whatever they
say will be subdued and
alienated.

35. It critiques patriarchal
language and literature by
exposing these reflect
masculine ideology
--- refers to the ways of
thinking people.

36. Precept # 4
Feminist Criticism believes
that there are
words/phrases/language
used in several texts that
are only for women.
Women writers have addressed
the issues of masculinized
writing through male gendered
language that may not serve to
accommodate the literary
understanding of women’s lives.
--- “God the Father” which is
looked upon as a way of
designating the sacred as solely
men (or, in other words, biblical
language glorifies men through all
of the masculine pronouns like
“he” and “him” and addressing
God as a “He”).

37. Feminist theorists attempt
to reclaim and redefine
women through re-
structuring language.
--- Feminist theorists have
used the term “womyn”
instead of “women.”

38. Some feminist theorists find
solace in changing titles of
unisex jobs (for example,
police officer versus
policeman or mail carrier
versus mailman).
Some feminist theorists have
reclaimed and redefined such
words as “dyke” and “bitch”
and others have invested
redefining knowledge into
feminist dictionaries.

39. Oppressive lives of women
that are not only shaped by
gender alone but by other
elements such as racism,
classicism, ageism,
heterosexism, disableism,
etc.

40. Precept #5
Feminist Criticism
concerned on the
experiences of women from
all races, classes, and
cultures.
 Mary Ann Weather’s
publication, “An argument
for Black Women’s
Liberation as a Revolutionary
Force.
--- Mary Ann Weathers states
that “black women, at least the
Black women I have come in
contact with in the movement,
have been expending all their
energies in “liberating” Black
men (if you yourself are not
free, how can you “liberate”
someone else?)”

41. --- Women of color were put in
a position of choosing sides.
White women wanted women of
color and working-class women
to become a part of the
women’s movement over
struggling with their men
(working-class, poor, and men
of color) against class
oppression and racism in the
Civil Rights Movement.

42. Precept #6
Feminist Criticism believes
that women writers write
differently from the men.
 Feminism believes that there
is stylistic difference in
women’s writing. Women
tend to used reflexive
constructions more than
men (e.g., “She found herself
crying”).
They have noticed that
women and men tend to
communicate differently. Men
directed towards solutions,
women towards connecting.