F e m i n i s m

1. Feminism By: Daniela, Harini, Tola, Mike C., & Katie

2. Goal:sell it for profit! (Activity) VS. GIRLS GUYS

3. Began with the rediscovery of neglected or forgotten female writers and has grown into the attempt to redefine the gender in literary studies.

4. Feminism… • Defined as a matter of what is absent rather than present • Concerned with marginalization of all women • Belief that our culture is patriarchal (organized in favor of men’s interests) • Examine experiences of women from all races, classes, & cultures • Exhibits liberal tolerance, interdisciplinary links, & connects art to the diversities of life

5. Represents one of the most important social, economic, and artistic revolutions of modern times

6. Goals. • Expose patriarchal principles and resulting theories • Promote discovery and reevaluation of literature by women • Examine social, cultural, and psychosexual contexts of literature/criticism

7. What is a woman? -DeBeauvoir • She is constructed differently BY men. • Man defines the human, NOT woman.

8. PhasesofWomen’sLiterary Development • 1840-80, “Feminine”: Women writers imitated the dominate tradition • 1880-1920, “Feminist”: Women advocated a variety of minority rights, protests • 1920-Today, “Female”: Dependency on opposition

9. Art & Women’s rights • Attacked by those who are suspicious of its social values and fear its politicizing artistic value • Some feel the issue of art is not a question about women’s rights but about the entire nature or literary criticism

10. Caused major reorientation of values in literary studies • Will continue to challenge long-held beliefs and practices • Female critics feel it has become too theoretical and too entirely radical and has lost sight of both its social roots and its application to reading texts • Believe that no man can possibly read, write, or teach as a feminist

11. feels… • Much is lacking • Early feminist critics look at women in male novels in a naïve fashion, treating the characters as real people and predictable not finding them portrayed correctly • Finds later feminist critics to be unsuccessful in the attempt discover a distinctively female way of writing or a women’s language

12. Feminism in the future… • Continues to flourish in its many forms • Will continue to offer society and literary studies a fruitful and exciting set of intellectual problems • Most feminists don’t want to abolish male values; they wish to do away with such gender-typed categories altogether ** • Key to feminism = continuing usefulness as a self-description which will lie in its willingness or unwillingness to grow with the times and not only lead the way to reforms but adapt itself to the changing needs of men and women • Feminism will find itself transformed by its own creations!

13. Four Significant Current Practices • Gender Studies • Marxist Feminism • Psychoanalytic • Minority Feminist Criticism

14. Feminism Applied!