ENL 3

Images of Women

-Feminism

-A term meant to criticize the portrayal of women throughout literature, to those that demean and purposely put women into a role that is stereotypical.

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to the feminist movements working to remove harmful patriarchal systems in culture.

Authority of Experience

-Feminism

-The certain standard of expectation that gives certain speakers the validity of speaking on issues women face.

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to these notions being unstable and subjective. Feminists theorists challenge figures of authority rather than relying on them.

Intersectionality

-Feminism

-Referring to the hybrid and intersecting social identities like race, gender, and sexuality.

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to the Feminist focus to attempting to highlight the ways in which women have historically been displayed in literary texts.

Phallocentric Language

-Feminism

-Understanding language and their hierarchies and gendered. Language structured by society and automatically provides certain terms with a gendered connotation relating to their importance. (Mankind, Salesman, Dogs and Cats)

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to feminism wanting to highlight and deconstruct the ways in which women have been unfairly treated and depicted in literature.

Hybridity

-Post-Colonial & Race Theory

-Term used to describe how colonizers and colonized people have taken on many of each other’s ways of living and thinking due to historical shifts in economic and historical power.

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to the theory thinking of the impact colonization has on colonized peoples. Hybridity, is a unique term that provides an example of these “contact zones” where colonized and colonizers share a sense of “bothness” and through this something new ends up being produced.

Mimicry

-Post-Colonial & Race Theory

-Term referring to how colonized people and colonizers mimic each other in socially performed practices.

-This relates to the theory as a whole because it focuses on the relationships between colonizers and colonized peoples. It is an incredibly crucial example proving that these socially performed practices aren’t some innate part of out identity, but are rather learned aspects of humans.

Orientalism

-Post-Colonial & Race Theory

-Term that represents how the West constructs depictions of the East, which are reproduced through media, and creates a binary opposition that continues to shape relations between the two.

-This term relates to the theory by offering a way to understand the methodology used by the west to construct false ideas about the east, and in this way they are making themselves “what the east is not” to justify their dominance.

Strategic Essentialism

-Post-Colonial & Race Theory

-Term that refers to the temporary adoption of an oversimplified identity.

-This term relates to the theory as a whole because it showcases a way in which colonized peoples or marginalized groups may find it politically convenient to find solidarity in these groups. Even when understanding these groups as socially constructed, individuals may find comfort in their relations to others from these groups.

Naturalization of Heterosexuality

-Queer Theory

-The assumption, typically made without thinking, that everyone is heterosexual unless labeled otherwise

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to its concern with breaking down the boundaries between sexuality, as in gay or lesbian studies. By understanding how culture represses queer people through N.O.H, queer theorists can better dismantle the rigid grid of sexuality in culture and society.

Compulsory Heterosexuality

-Queer Theory

-The impression, explicit or implicit, that people should be heterosexual or else something is wrong with them

-This relates to the theory as a whole due to queer theorists concern with deconstructing the discriminatory perception and representation of sexuality in culture. This showcases how being queer can work as means to discriminate against others and influence social perceptions.

Minoritizing View

-Queer Theory

-The act of identifying queer/homosexual as the minority. May mean that they either deserve respect or rejection.

-Pro of acknowledging the unfair treatment of queer people as minorities but can also be used to increase their rejection in society as they are “just the minority”

Universalizing View

-Queer Theory

-The idea that anyone could potentially be queer. May mean that they could be anyone, and thus deserve respect, or could be anyone, so thus deserve scrutiny.

-Pro if individuals acknowledge that others may be queer and it does not define their identity, thus they deserve their respect. Con if individuals use this to justify their scrutiny of queer people as anyone.