class 10 feminist theory

1. EWRT 1C Class 10

2. Agenda
 Literary Theory: The Extrinsic Lens
 Feminist Criticism
 Change Teams
 Andrew Marvell “To His Coy
Mistress”
 Group Activity: Using Feminist
Criticism

3. Intrinsic Theories
 The intrinsically inclined literary theory
isolates a work of literature from its
external reality. The supporters of this
classification see a text of literature as
having no relationship, either intended or
implied, with the external world. They
assert that a work exists in its own world.
The critical theorists in this category are
the Formalists (The New Critics),
Structuralists, and Post-structuralists or
the Deconstructionists.

4. Categorizing Literary
Theories
 In his book, An Essay on Criticism (1966)
Graham Hough distinguishes two
categories of literary theories. The first
category—the intrinsic theories—is
concerned with the moral nature of
literature. Theories in this category
primarily emphasize the total essence of
literature. The second is what he
describes as the extrinsic theories, which
talk about the formal nature of literature
and more specifically what it is.

5. The Extrinsic
Theories
 The extrinsically inspired literary theories tend to associate a
literary piece with its external world. We see a departure
from the isolationist philosophy of the intrinsic critics.
Extrinsic criticism generally asserts that a work of
literature is both a representation of the age and a
reflection of the world in which it operates. Extrinsic
theories value a text of literature as a product of the external
world: the creator’s vision, imagination, and understanding.
In this kind of criticism, the artist is said to be inside of the
literary production, creating characters to carry out his
mission. Some modern literary theories in this category are
Psychoanalytical, Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonialist
criticism.

6.  Feminist criticism is concerned with “the ways in which literature
(and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the
economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of
women" (Tyson). This school of theory looks at how aspects of our
culture are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and “this
critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in
males writing about women" (Richter 1346). This misogyny, Tyson
reminds us, can extend into diverse areas of our culture: "Perhaps
the most chilling example [...] is found in the world of modern
medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been
tested on male subjects only" (83).
Feminist Theory and
Criticism

7. The objectives of feminist criticism
include the following:
 To analyze women writers and their
writing’s from a female perspective
 To increase awareness of the sexual
politics of language and style.
 To uncover and develop a female tradition of writing
 To interpret symbolism of women’s writing so that it will be lost
or ignored by the male point of view.
 To rediscover old texts

8. Feminist criticism has, in many ways,
followed what some theorists call the
three waves of feminism:

9. First Wave Feminism
 Ran from late 1700s-early
1900's: writers like Mary
Wollstonecraft (A
Vindication of the Rights of
Women, 1792) highlight the
inequalities between the
sexes. Activists like Susan
B. Anthony and Victoria
Woodhull contribute to the
women's suffrage
movement, which leads to
National Universal Suffrage
in 1920 with the passing of
the Nineteenth Amendment

10. Second Wave Feminism
 From early 1960s-late 1970s:
building on more equal working
conditions necessary in America
during World War II, movements
such as the National
Organization for Women (NOW),
formed in 1966, cohere feminist
political activism. Writers like
Simone de Beauvoir (Le
deuxième sexe, 1972) and
Elaine Showalter established the
groundwork for the
dissemination of feminist
theories dove-tailed with the
American Civil Rights movement


11. Third Wave Feminism
 From early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over
generalized, over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle
class focus of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from
post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories to expand on
marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to
“reconcile [feminism] with the concerns of the black community [and] the
survival and 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 women perform" (Tyson 97).

12. Assumptions of New Criticism
 The boundaries between self and other, text and
world are considered firm.
 The critic is/should be a neutral observer.
 The literary work is regarded as a self-enclosed
universe with its own logic. It stands apart from
the world but illuminates the world.
 The literary work should be studied for its
distinctively literary elements, and for how they
operate in relation to each other in the world of
the work. The work is valuable for its own sake,
not for any extrinsic purpose.
http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/271/FeministCriticism.htm

13. Assumptions of Feminist Criticism
 Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically,
politically, socially, and psychologically; patriarchal ideology
is the primary means by which they are kept so
 In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other:
she is marginalized, defined only by her difference from
male norms and values
 All of western civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal
ideology, for example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as the
origin of sin and death in the world
 While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture
determines our gender (masculine or feminine)
 All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary
criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by
prompting gender equality
 Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human
production and experience, including the production and
experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware
of these issues or not.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/

14. Your First
Group!
 Get into new
groups of three
or four. (1-2
minutes)
 If you can’t find
a group, please
raise your hand.
 Introduce
yourselves, and
write your
names down on
your point
sheet.

15. In Groups, Discuss
 What is the primary focus of feminist criticism and theory?
 How do feminist critics and theorists regard the role of women in
literature?
 Intersections of Feminist and New Criticism
 QHQs

16. Feminist Theory
 What is the primary focus of
Feminist Criticism and theory?
 How do feminist critics and
theorists regard the role of
women in literature?
 What do you see as intersections
of Feminist and New Criticism

17. QHQs Feminist Criticism
Q: How does gender studies play a role in feminist criticism? Why don’t
we make a gender studies class mandatory for most schools?
Q: How does French Materialist Feminist criticism affect how we view
feminist theory today?
Q: How is sexage, and the “appropriation” of women different from
objectification and possession of women?
Q. Why is it important for feminist critical analysis to be done for all works
of literature throughout history, and how might it reveal social growth (if
any) throughout the ages?

18. Questions Feminist Critics
Ask about Literary Text
1. What does the work reveal about the operations
(economically, politically, socially, or psychologically)
of patriarchy? How are women portrayed? How do
these portrayals relate to the gender issues of the
period in which the novel was written or is set? In
other words, does the work reinforce or undermine
patriarchal ideology? (in the first case, we might say
that the text has a patriarchal agenda. In the second
case, we might say that the text has a feminist agenda.
Texts that seem to both reinforce and undermine
patriarchal ideology might be said to be ideologically
conflicted.

21. Andrew Marvell (1621-
1678)
published a handful of poems in anthologies, a collection of Marvell's work did
not appear until 1681, three years after his death, when his nephew compiled
and found a publisher for Miscellaneous Poems. The circumstances
surrounding the publication of the volume aroused some suspicion: a person
named "Mary Marvell," who claimed to be Marvell's wife, wrote the preface to
the book. "Mary Marvell" was, in fact, Mary Palmer—Marvell's housekeeper—
who posed as Marvell's wife, apparently, in order to keep Marvell's small
estate from the creditors of his business partners. Her ruse, of course, merely
contributes to the mystery that surrounds the life of this great poet.
See more at http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/304
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), now considered one of the
greatest poets of the seventeenth century, published very
little of his scathing political satire and complex lyric verse
in his lifetime. Although Marvell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDJwycpIfRQ

22. “To His Coy Mistress”
Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast;
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart;
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

23. But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

24. In your groups, discuss Andrew Marvell’s
“To His Coy Mistress” and “‘To His Coy
Mistress’: A Feminist Reading”
 Identify and discuss qualities
of Feminist Criticism as it is
applied in the essay about “To
His Coy Mistress.”
 Next, find specific examples
from the essay, the poem, or
the definition/description of
Feminist Criticism that
further support a feminist
reading of the poem.

25. QHQs: “To His Coy Mistress”
1. Q: In the poem “ To His Coy Mistress,” why does the speaker
describe the young maidens beauty only, even though it is a poem
about his love for her?
2. Q: What can be made of Marvell’s decision to anatomize the object
of his affection?
Note: This anatomizing is called A literary blazon (or blason, and
it catalogues the physical attributes of a subject, usually female.
The device was made popular by Petrarch and used extensively
by Elizabethan poets.
3. Q: Why does his mistress seem so coy? Why is the speaker still
insistent on taking his mistress’ virginity when he knows that she is
being coy and cunning with him? (Why waste his time?)

26. QHQs: “To His Coy Mistress”
1. Q. In what ways are patriarchal gender norms
enforced in the poem?
2. Q: What would this poem sound like from the
perspective of the woman?
1. Q: Do the failings of a work (like sexism, racism, or
homophobia) overshadow the successes, and are
we, as critical readers, obligated to denounce them
as failed literature?

27. 1. Q: Why does the author bring up Petrarchan sonnets when the poem
does not fit into the conventional form?
2. Q. Why does the author mention Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 and how
does the poem “To His Coy Mistress” continue to differ from that satire
of Petrarchan convention?
3. Q: Why does this feminist critic ignore the poem’s forms in justifying his
or her points? (Or more specifically, why the does the author not
consider rhyme scheme or meter in his or her argument?)
4. Q. How is the disconnect between physical attributes to the actuality of
the mistress still a failure on female equality? Is there a way for the
mistress to gain her own voice in the poem?
QHQs: Feminist
Reading

28. HOMEWORK
 Read: Lois Tyson: Chapter 2
“Psychoanalytic Criticism” pages
11-49
 Reread: Bishop’s “The
Fish”
 Read: Elizabeth Bishop’s
“The Fish”: A
Psychoanalytic Reading
(“Course Readings” and
“theory texts.” Bring copies
of both texts.
 Post #9: What is the
purpose of psychoanalytical
criticism? OR QHQ on the
Tyson reading