Feminist Literary Theory

1. By
Madiha
Habib

2. Feminist Literary
Theory

3. INTRODUCTION
Human civilization is made by and for both the man and
woman. They both live here in a coordinated social system.
Both the species have their own right and needs to live with
modest admiration. But the history of human society does not
tell us the equivalent existence of both man and woman. Man
always dominated on women and women had no way to
complaint against it. But in time gradually a change come into
women’s brains and they understood that they need to be
conscious about their own right. So women move up their
voice against women oppression. To do so they had no way
but to take some practical actions. All these actions are
known as women’s movement against oppression. And the
scheme to achieve the goal is called feminism.

4. Feminism is a social movement which has
gradually improved the position of women. It
refers to the belief in the social, political, and
economic equality of the sexes; that each
individual is a valuable human being in his or her
own right. The goal of feminist work is broader
than simply a stronger emphasis on women; the
goal is to revise our way of considering history,
society, literature, etc. so that both male and
female are seen equally conditioned by the gender
constructions of their culture. Feminists may differ
in the importance they assign to sex, which is a
biologically based category, but the idea that
gender norms can be changed is central to
feminist theory.

5.  From centuries female writers faced many
social realities in the production of literature.
For a very long period of time, women were
not supposed to get education and the works
of female writers have been under a number
of serious historical constraints. Their works
were not considered universal and hence did
not become part of literary canon.
 After a centuries old struggle, the feminist
movement began in 1960’s. It talks about the
social, economic, political and psychological
oppression of women.

6.  Feminism talks about the position of women
and seeks to change the power relations
between men and women prevail in the
patriarchal setup; leads to examination of
gender roles, how roles for males and females
are culturally constructed.
 Feminism talks about how women are
represented in literature with cultural
stereotypes, how this stereotyping is an
obstacle on the path of equality.
 This theory depicts the plight of women in the
male dominated society; the treatment of
women as subjects, as sexual objects which
lead to the sufferings of self.

7. The history of the modern western feminist
movements is divided into three "waves". Each
wave dealt with different aspects of the same
feminist issues.
First Wave
Second Wave
Third Wave

8.  First-wave feminism was a
period of activity during the
nineteenth century and early
twentieth century.
 It focused on the promotion of
equal contract, marriage,
parenting, property rights and
rights of vote for women.
 By the end of the nineteenth
century, activism focused
primarily on gaining political
power, particularly women's
sexual, reproductive, and
economic rights as well.

9.  Second-wave feminism is a
feminist movement beginning in
the early 1960s and continuing to
the present.
 Second-wave feminism is largely
concerned with issues of equality
other than suffrage, such as
ending discrimination. Second-
wave feminists see women's
cultural and political inequalities
as inextricably linked
 Encourage women to understand
aspects of their personal lives as
deeply politicized and as
reflecting sexist power structures

10.  In the early 1990s , third-wave feminism began as
a response to perceived failures of the second
wave and to the backlash against initiatives and
movements created by the second wave.
 Third-wave feminism distinguished itself from the
second wave around issues of sexuality,
challenging female heterosexuality and celebrating
sexuality as a means of female empowerment.
 Third-wave feminists often focus on "micro-
politics" and challenge the second wave's paradigm
as to what is, or is not, good for women, and tend
to use a post-structuralist interpretation of
gender and sexuality

12.  Wollstonecraft is regarded as
one of the founding feminist
philosophers
 best known for A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman(1792), in
which she argues that women
are not naturally inferior to
men, but appear to be only
because they lack education.
 She suggests that both men and
women should be treated as
rational beings and imagines a
social order founded on reason.

13.  A French writer, intellectual,
existentialist philosopher, feminist
and social theorist
 known for her book The Second Sex,
a detailed analysis of women's
oppression
 Believed that “one is not born a
woman, but becomes one”. It is the
(social) construction of Woman as
Other that plays fundamental role in
women's oppression.
 Women are as capable of choice as
men, and thus can choose to elevate
themselves, a position where one
chooses one's freedom.

14.  Judith Butler proposes her theory of
gender performativity in her Gender
Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of
Identity (1990)
 She accepts this notion of a "distinction
between sex, as biological facticity, and
gender, as the cultural interpretation or
signification of that facticity.
 Butler argues that it is more valid to
perceive gender as a performance that an
individual agent acts in.
 She states, "gender is not a radical choice
. . . [nor is it] imposed or inscribed upon
the individual". Given the social nature of
human beings, most actions are witnessed,
reproduced, and internalized and thus
take on a performative quality.

15.  American writer, activist, and feminist. A
leading figure in the women's movement
in the United States
 Her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is
often credited with sparking the second
wave of American feminism in the 20th
century.
 Friedan asserted that women are as
capable as men for any type of work.
 Primary objective was promoting equal
opportunities for women in jobs and
education. She reacted against the
restrictions of the 1950s, and the
trapped, imprisoned feeling of many
women forced into these oppressive roles

16. Key
Issues
Constructed
Gender Roles
Patriarchy
Otheri
ng
Marginalization
& Oppression

17.  Patriarchy is a social system in which society is
organized around male authority figures. In this
system males (Fathers, Husbands, Brothers) have
authority over women, children, and property.
 It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege,
and is dependent on female subordination. Most
forms of feminism characterize patriarchy as an
unjust social system that is oppressive to women.
Carole Pateman argues that the patriarchal
distinction "between masculinity and femininity is the
political difference between freedom and
subjection“.
 In feminist theory the concept of patriarchy often
includes all the social mechanisms that reproduce and
exert male dominance over women. Feminist theory
typically characterizes patriarchy as a social
construction

18.  In “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily catered to the whims and
needs of her father, someone who maintained rigid control over
her life and behavior. She has mainly been a prisoner of her
father and male dominated society that imposed limitations of
values and gender roles on her.
 “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a
sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”
 “We remembered all the young men her father had driven
away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to
cling to that which had robbed her”
 Reference to Philomela who was forced and assaulted by her
brother-in-law king Treues, and he cut her tongue to prevent
her from telling his sisters.
“The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced;
And still she cried, and still the world pursues”
(The Wasteland “A Game of Chess”)

19.  The idea of othering highlights the superiority and inferiority
associated with men and women. The ‘other’ has to be
subjugated. This assumption highlights the dichotomies Just
as the master/ slave, colonizer/colonized, strong/weak,
rational /irrational
 According to feminist writers, the woman has to be seen in
connection with man. The man is master and colonizer,
whereas, the woman is a slave and colonized entity. This
notion is discussed by Gayatri Spivak in her essay “Can the
Subaltern speak?” Beauvoir also mentioned in her book The
Second Sex “Humanity is male, and man defines woman, not
in herself, but in relation to himself; she is not considered
an autonomous being. Men are Self and women are Other”

20. Faulkner portrays beautifully the plight of woman and
the way she is taught to be submissive to her father and
societal norms in the following lines.
“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a
Northerner, a day labourer…. Older people, who said
that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget
noble oblige…” (A Rose for Emily)
These lines show how only a female is expected to
behave according to the expectations of societal codes of
morality. In this way society treats women as men’s other
and a slave of the patriarchal laws.

21.  Feminist critics show that women are always treated as men’s
“Other” by associating certain cultural stereotypes like
submissive, docile, irrational, helpless, unworldly, self-
sacrificing and weak.
 In patriarchal society, these stereotypes are considered to be
admirable. Aristotle cited by Beavouir in The Second Sex
“The female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities.
We should regard women’s nature as suffering from natural
defectiveness. Men are absolute and they are relative
beings”
 “….only a women could have believed it”
 “Poor Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had
become humanized. Her kinsfolk should come to her”
 The lines show how irrationally Emily believed the words of
Colonel Sartoris, and how helpless and weak society thinks of
her in the absence of male member of her family.

22.  Female is objectified in a male made society. Beauvoir
mentions “And she is nothing other than what man decides;
she is thus called “the sex,” meaning that the male sees her
essentially as a sexed being; for him she is sex, an object of
pleasure”.
Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
To get yourself some teeth, and get a nice set,
He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good
time,/ And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will
(The Wasteland)
In a rigid patriarchal society, woman is to be blamed for moral
corruption of man. They believe that a woman corrupts man by
seducing him through her exposed sexuality. She is the one who
brings downfall to man.
“when she had begun to been seen with Homer Browen, we
had said, “she will marry him. She will persuade
him….then some of the ladies began to say that it was a
disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young
people…. We believed that she was fallen”
(A Rose for Emily)

23.  Marginalization is the process in which an individual or a group is
pushed to periphery and given lesser importance. The individual
or group is treated as minority and their wants and necessities
are ignored. Oppression is the unjust treatment the individuals
receive in a society.
 According to feminism, oppression is the elongated subjection of
women in a society dominated by men. Women in all cultures and
societies, either eastern or western, are oppressed in one way or
other. They get a treatment of second-rate citizens the lower
class
 The men wanted their women forget the very nature and innate
love of freedom by keeping them in a state of subjection. They
never realizes the females’ inner dissatisfaction and hunger for
freedom and identity to be their own.

24. In the story “A Rose for Emily”, Miss Emily is marginalized
and oppressed, first by her own father and later by
society, in such a way that results in the eventual murder
of her husband and her own death out of grief. She was
tortured so much in the name of societal norms that she
became rebellious.
“…that quality of her father which had thwarted
her woman’s life so many times had been virulent
and too furious to die”
“And so she died. Fell in the house filled with dust
and shadows […] there was one room which no one
had seen in forty years….this room decked and
furnished as for a bridal; the man himself lay in the
bed. Then we noticed in the second pillow , a long
strand of iron-grey hair”

25.  Gender is a reciprocal of sex which includes the dimensions
upon which individuals are distinct from each other, such as
male and female. Sex is a biologic composition which means
that males are distinct from females biologically. On the basis
of this distinction, the society expects various roles and
behaviors from male and female members.
 According to feminism, sex is biologic composition as female
and male, whereas gender is constructed by societal and
cultural communities as masculine and feminine.
 According to Wollstonecraft, "we are literally self-less—that is,
our very identities are determined by our socially constituted
wants and desires. We are, fundamentally, the selves our
communities create”.
 Because of these constructed roles, power relations occur
between men and women. Men hold the life and destiny of
women and decide their fate.

26.  The women in patriarchal society are expected to internalize
the roles defined for them. A woman is obligated to remain
obedient towards her father before marriage and husband
after marriage.
 The major roles given to a woman are to obey male members,
remain chaste and morally pure, get married at an early age
and giving birth to children.
“so when she got to be thirty and was still single, we
were not pleased exactly, but vindicated”
“two days later we learned that she had bought a
complete outfit of men’s clothing, we said, “They are
married”. We were really glad”. (A Rose for Emily)
 Example from The Wasteland
He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you.
And no more can’t I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don’t want children?

27. THE END