20th century feminism

Key idea of Virginia Woolf's “a room of one's own”

Women must have financial independence and individual freedom to realise their artistic potential; problem of female authorship e.g. Judith Shakespeare

Key idea of Simone de Beauvoir's “the second sex”

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”
society shapes gender, reproduction of established ideas of masculinity and femininity

The women's movement of the 60s → Feminist literary criticism emerged alongside political women's movement

Feminist Criticism in the 70s

focus on exposing power strucures of the patriarchy
focus on representation of women in male authored texts and literature as means of socialization

Mulvey's idea of “male gaze”

films/media often cater to viewing habits of men → female characters to satisfy the “male gaze”
Active men and passive females diplayed for gaze and enjoyment of men

Feminist Criticism in 80s

focus on female authored texts, the female tradition of writing and reform of male dominated canon

Elaine Showalter's “gynocriticism”

specific form of literary studies → seeks to establish female tradition of literary writing, rediscover forgotten female writers → effect on canon
distinction androtexts (male authored) and gynotexts (female authored)

Helene Cixous’ “phallologocentrism”:

wants to overcome phallologocentrism: language itself is patriarchal and biased towards men → male language connot express female experience properly
→ Écriture féminine: female style of writing that operates beyond phallologocentrism and may liberate women and female body

Example question for feminist approches: