1. Feminist Critical Perspective  “I have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat” (Rebecca West).

2. Feminism…  Is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, defending equal political, social, and economic rights for women.  Argues that gender roles are socially constructed.

3. What is a feminist?  A feminist is an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women.  Some argue that in order to truly free society from misogyny, men must also be freed from the expectations of male gender roles. This movement is called masculinism.

4. WHEN & WHY?  The feminist movement is different depending upon the time and location.  Feminism takes on a variety of social, political, religious, and theoretical lenses.

5. Waves of Feminism  First wave (1800s-1950s)—Focused on the promotion of equal contract, marriage, parenting, property & voting rights for women  Second wave (1960s-present)—largely concerned with issues of equality other than suffrage, such as ending discrimination.  Third wave (1990s-present)—Embraces diversity and change; recognizes feminist goals of women beyond white, middle class.

6. Response to Freud’s Theory of Phallic Envy  Freud asserted that women were subconsciously jealous of a man’s body, and the power of masculinity, and that this was a primary motivation for female behavior.  Some feminists lay claim to Womb Envy Theory: the belief that men are subconsciously jealous of a woman’s ability to create life.  This jealously manifests itself in reckless, oppressive, hyper-masculine behavior in attempt to feel powerful.

7. Feminist Criticism  The feminist critical approach examines how gender is present in texts.  It holds that most of our literature presents a masculine- patriarchal view in which the role of women is negated or at best minimized.

8. Feminist Criticism  As an addition to the feminist movement in politics, the feminist critique of literature seeks to raise the consciousness about the importance and unique nature of women in literature, and to point out how language has been used to marginalize women.

9. Some basic assumptions:   Women's personal experience is a valuable source of insight.   Many of the “canonical” texts are written by and focus on the male experience.   Women in literature were often marginalized or ignored entirely.   Women too often portrayed in literature from a male-centered viewpoint.   Seeks to recover neglected women authors of the past and value female experience.

10. Feminist Criticism Specifically, the feminist view attempts to: 1. Show that writers of traditional literature have ignored women and have presented misguided and prejudiced views of them 2. Stimulate the creation of a critical landscape that reflects a balanced view of the nature and value of women

11. Feminist Criticism 3. Expand the literary canon by recovering works of women of the past and publication of contemporary female writers 4. Urge transformation in the language to eliminate inequities and inequalities that result from linguistic distortions such as mankind (rather than humanity).

12. Feminist Critical Questions 1. To what extent does the representation of women (and men) in the work reflect the time and place in which the work was written? 2. How are the relationships between men and women presented in the work? 3. Does the author present the work from within a predominantly male or female perspective?

13. Feminist Critical Questions 4.How do the facts of the author’s life relate to the presentation of men and women in the work? 5. What are the power dynamics between men and women in the narrative? 6. How do other works by the author correspond to this one in their depiction of the power relationships between men and women?