Definitions of Feminist Literary Criticism
From Jennifer: "The early feminist literary critics (in the 1960's and 70's) argued that men and women had different points of view about literature, and that what had been considered as neutral about literature was really the male point of view."From Sheneka: "Feminist LitCrit is the most interesting and most difficult of all definitions. Feminist LitCrit analyzes another authors work but with a feminist slant. It would be very interesting to find a fem lit crit essay about any of the works of Faulkner. In every authors' works' the female characters have strong presence--whether good or bad. Fem Lit Critexamines the author's female characters and assess their role within theauthor's work."From Jason: "A succinct definition would be a challenge well worth taking. So, here goes: Feminist literary criticism is about the search for a literature that women can call their own but without segregating it to an extreme which would result in separatism. It is about having a special history which includes 'such complex considerations as the economics of [women's] relation to the literary marketplace,the effects of social and political change upon women, and the restrictions of her artistic autonomy.'" From Vickie: "Feminist literary criticism emphasizes the critical concern for the impact of gender upon reading and writing (how men write about women, how women read both men's and women's writing, how feminine language and creativity differ from masculine language and creativity)."From Patrick: " Feminist literary criticism is the term for criticizing literary works through the examination of female points of view, concerns, and values. Feminist literary criticism encompasses not only female literary works but also male literary works, leaving men to be held accountable for their portrayal of women as well as men in their literary works."
Helene Cixous states that l'ecriture feminine seeks a way of writing that literally embodies the female, thereby fighting the "subordinating, linear style of classification or distinction." While men have a penis, she states, women, too, possess something of their own: All women write in a little of that good mother's milk. See Isak Dinesen and her short story "The White Sheet."Lisa Tuttle defines feminist literary criticism as asking "new questions of old texts." She cites the goals of feminist criticism as: (1) To develop and uncover a female tradition of writing, (2) to interpret symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view, (3) to rediscover old texts, (4) to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective, (5) to resist sexism in literature, and (6) to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style. Maggie Humm tells us that feminist literary criticism makes an effort to redefine literary concepts in terms of gender in order to "create a new literary landscape." She also labels several branches of thought within feminist literary criticism: Marxist, Black, Lesbian, Myth, Linguistics, and Psychoanalytic.Adrienne Rich: Feminism means finally that we renounce our obedience to the fathers and recognize that he world they have described is not the whole world re-vision--the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes of entering an old text from a new critical direction--is for us more than a chapter in cultural history,it is an act of survival.Fetterley: Feminist critics must become resisting readers rather than assenting readers.Sandra McPherson: The female genital, like the blank page anticipating the poem, is an absence, a not me, which I occupy.
Project Muse (online journals)
Virginia Woolf Web Feminist Links
Kay Vandergrift's Special Interest Page (Home)
Kay Vandergrift's Feminist Page
Kay Vandergrift's Feminist Readings
bell hooks, "Misogyny, Gangsta Rap, and The Piano"
Elizabeth Lee, "Feminist Theory--an Overview"
Mary Klages Lecture Notes on Helene Cixous
Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Utopia
Annotated Bibliography of Feminist Aesthetics in the Literary, Perfoming and Visual Arts
University of Maryland's Links to Women's Studies and Feminist Web Sites
Feminist Questions about the Literary Canon
Reference Sources for Feminist Literary Criticism at Clemson University: an Annotated Bibliography