Feminist Literary Theory

Historical Context of Feminism

First Wave Feminism (19th Century)
- Focused on property rights, voting rights, and discrimination.
- Began with women abolitionists fighting for African Americans' rights while lacking rights for themselves.
- Seneca Falls Convention (1848): Marked the start of the first wave with the Declaration of Sentiments proclaiming equality and demanding voting rights.
- Suffragette Movement: Fought for women's right to vote.
Voting Milestones
- New Zealand: First country to grant women the right to vote.
- 1920: The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in the United States, granting women the right to vote.

Start: Initiated in 1963 with the publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, critiquing women’s societal roles.
Women’s Liberation: The term that gained prominence during this wave.
Roe v. Wade (1973): Established women’s constitutional right to abortion, symbolizing significant progress.
Critique: Many argued the early waves favored white, college-educated women, neglecting the voices of women of color and other minorities.

Focus: Authentically include diverse women's experiences in the struggle for equality.
Cultural Shift: Focused on issues like sexual assault and societal perceptions of rape culture, highlighted by the Me Too Movement that gained momentum in 2017.

Emerged during the second wave (1960s-1970s) as a reaction against women's marginalization in literary discourse.
Influenced by poststructuralism and intersectionality.
Key Developments: Women's studies programs established in the 1970s influenced the theory’s growth.
Elaine Showalter's Phases of Female Literature:
- Feminine Phase: Women adhere to male literary norms.
- Feminist Phase: Female writers critique gender representation in literature.
- Female Phase: Women express confidence in their narratives without justification.

Power Dynamics: Examines how literature reflects and reinforces patriarchal structures.
Gender as Performance: Judith Butler's theory suggesting gender identity is socially constructed through acts and influenced by cultural forces.
Intersectionality: Concept by Kimberlé Crenshaw addressing how race, class, and sexuality intersect in women's oppression.
Male Gaze: Laura Mulvey's theory on how female characters are often depicted for male consumption, reinforcing gender biases.
Exclusion of Female Voices: Critique of how women's contributions in literature are overshadowed by male narratives, prompting recovery efforts for women's literature.

Lady Bertilak in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
- Initially seen as passive but is reinterpreted as a figure that challenges traditional heroics and Gawain’s masculinity.
- Her flirtation forces Gawain to confront his own vulnerabilities and the limitations of male identity.
Morgan le Fay's Transformation:
- From a powerful sorceress to Gawain's mother in film adaptations, altering her role from a disruptor to a nurturing figure, thus diminishing her power.

Critique of Beauty Standards: Roxane Gay’s Hunger critiques societal beauty norms and the stigma around different body shapes.
Goal: Restore authority to female perspectives in literature while promoting diversity in representations of women's bodies.
Impact: Feminist literary theories aim to shift the cultural imagination in favor of women, creating a society that respects all women's bodies.