Introduction to Literary Theories and Criticisms (Enla 422), 2011
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| B. Feminist Movements
The first wave feminist literary movement began in the United States of America from the mid-19th century until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. It principally aimed at gaining the right of women suffrage. In United Kingdom, forexample, Mary Wollstonecraft published a book entitled ‘A Vindication of the Rights of women’ (1792) in which she advocated the social and moral equality of the sexes. While the second wave feminist literary movement vigorously concerned with the issue of economic, the ability to have careers and the right not to have children. In similar manner, the third wave literary movement began in the early 1990s by challenging and expanding common definitions of sexuality. In the third movement queer theory, women- of- color-consciousness, post colonialism, critical theory, trans-nationalism and new feminist theory become central issues. This movement is different from the two predecessors for it echoing on equality than addressing perceived oppressions by patriarchy. Showalter (1977) classified the feminist movements in to three. The first one was the feminine phase (1840_1880), the second phase was also called feminist phase (1880_1920) and the last one was categorized as female phase (from 1970 to the present). Elaine Showalter, in A Literature of Their Own, argues that literary subcultures all go through three major phases of development. For literature by or about women, she labels these stages the Feminine, Feminist, and Female: (1) Feminine Stage - involves "imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition" and "internalization of its standards." (2) Feminist Stage - involves "protest against these standards and values and advocacy of minority rights...." (3) Female Stage - this is the "phase of self-discovery, a turning inwards freed from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity." Showalter has stated that in the first and second phases writers have accepted their gender role in writing literary texts. However, she also has expressed that there were some writers, such as Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and George Sand who were writing under masculine pseudonyms to get into males literary canon. As she further explained, females’ critics in the third phase were concerned with understanding female experiences in arts; including a feminine analysis of literary forms and techniques by uncovering misogamy in male texts. In the Second Wave feminism female authors dramatized the plight of the undermined women by depicting the harsh representations of female characters. Though there were 100 writers of females before Jane Austen (possibly more), as Showalter has explained, critics had focused on the distinguished giant figures such as, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Wolf. Though she was not sounded as the preceding giant figures in England, Schreiner, as cited in Showalter (1977), has coined the term gynocritics or gynocriticism, which focused on the history, style, themes, genres, and structures of women writings based on the four models. The models were stated as biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic and cultural. Amazingly, feminist critics still focus on these four models in one way or the other. Thus, we need to examine these four models briefly as follows. Download 333 Kb. Share with your friends:
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