1. Feminism I Oppression of Women Women’s Movement Images of Women as Examples

2. Outline Course Review: Q & A From New Criticism to Feminism Feminisms: Starting Questions

3. Course Review Q & A What have we done so far? Romantic/Victorian Poetry about Nature and Quest. Main Points?  Wordsworth – seeking redemption and sublimation first in nature and then in memories and imagination about nature  Keats – nature with its contradictions, as a vale of soul-making  Women – supplementary (Dorothy Wordsworth) or used as symbols (Melancholy, La Belle Dame) New Criticism  Text as an organic whole

4. From New Criticism to Feminism 1. autonomous self/text, universal human nature Feminism: Self/text conditioned — gendered and (de-)sexualized — by society and history, and more specifically, by patriarchal society. 2. Methodologies: -- Close reading (of both form and content) is still important; -- symptomatic reading – instead of reading for the text’s wholeness, we read for its holes and/or biases -- reading against the grain – alternative readings

5. Feminisms: Starting Questions Who is a feminist? Are you a feminist? Can a man be a feminist? Clip 1Clip 1 gender difference: What are the differences between men and women?  Biology--Is our body our destiny?  Personality & Behavior --What is “being feminine” like?  Career Aptitude—Are there jobs unsuitable for women?  Writing--Do men and women write differently?

6. Feminisms: Starting Questions(2) Images of Women:  What are the traditional/stereotypical images of women (as a mother, as a career woman, as a college girl and as a daughter)? What’s wrong with them? (one simple example)(one simple example)  How do women deal with those traditional images? Rejecting them completely?  How do women look at women and women’s images? From a man’s perspective, or a woman’s?

7. Young Women in Dove Commercials

8. Young Women in Dove Commercials Images of “long-straight-hair” women – conformity  stereotype of campus beauty Non-professional user account – apparent reliability

9. Feminisms: Starting Questions(3) Feminine Writing, Feminist writings and Women’s work:  What is feminine writing? Does it have definite features?  Are all women writers feminist writers?  What are the feminist strategies used in feminist writings and cultural productions?

10. Feminisms: Starting Questions(4) Body, Desire, Sexuality and Sexual Orientation:  How do women express/liberate their desires? Is sexual liberation the only good way? How about body sculpture?  How is our sexual orientation determined? Genetically? By family background? Or by choice?  What is “good sex” and what is “bad”? (How about S/M?) How is marriage or love related to sex?  Should pornography be banned? And prostitution be legalized?

11. Feminisms: focuses in class 1. women's positions in patriarchal society and discourses (this week) 2. history of feminist movement & writings 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies: Radical Feminism, French Feminism, Post-Feminism, Lesbian Feminism, Taiwanese Feminisms

12. What is patriarchy? 1. male domination and limitation of women in society; e.g. foot binding, Hijab, Purdah system, Sati. 2. male superiority in ideologies (e.g. Aristotle declared that "the female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities"; St. Thomas Aquinas:woman is an ‘imperfect man’; Confucius ） 3. in language and literature (e.g. chairman, the universal "he"; God as "He"; in Chinese: 妒、姦、妙、佞, etc. 4. in sex and biology (women as rapable, receptacle of sperm)

13. Male Dominance in Literature before 20 th century.  Predominance of male writers  Women limited to writing in certain genres (e.g. diary, letter, romance). Stereotypical presentation of women; goddess, mistress, fallen women and femme fatale.

14. Male Dominance in Literature Objectifications of Women – Angel or Whore 1. Stereotyping Idealization; Degradation

15. Male Dominance in Literature (2): Images of Women as objects of desire 1) as objects of desire--e.g. "Araby," "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" "To His Coy Mistress" and courtly love poetry, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” symbol 2) as symbol--"Young Goodman Brown," "Grecian Urn" "To Autumn“; “Ode on Melancholy” Other or Villain 3) as Other or Villain – Snow White’s Stepmother; Fatal Attraction inferior or subordinate 4) women inferior or subordinate--Eve, romance (knight and lady), 007 films and the other Hollywood films (Working Girl, Coma, Silence of the Lamb)

16. Male Dominance in the Other Cultural Products Classical Nude Paintings and Pre- Raphaelite Paintings Hollywood Films (contemporary ambivalent ones: Switch) Music videos Commercials, advertisement

17. “The Female Body” “The female body has many uses. It’s been used as a door-knocker, a bottle- opener, as a clock with a ticking belly, as something to hold up lampshades, as a nutcracker, just squeeze the brass legs together and out comes your nut.... “ Margaret Atwood