A Summary of Feminist Premises

Feminist Criticism 1 A Summary of Feminist Premises (Tyson 90) Patriarchal ideology works to keep women and men in traditional gender roles and thereby maintains male dominance. That patriarchal ideology functions in this way is a belief shared by all feminists even if they disagree about other issues. In fact, feminists share several important assumptions, which might be summarized as follows. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially, and psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they are kept so. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and values, which means defined by what she (allegedly) lacks and men (allegedly) have. All of western (Anglo-European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, as we see, for example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the world (not to mention the rest of the female crew of "good girls" and "bad girls" that populates the bible); the numerous patriarchal women and female monsters of Greek and Roman literature and mythology; the representation of woman as a non-rational creature by traditional Western philosophy; and the reliance on phallogocentric thinking (thinking that is male oriented in its vocabulary, rules of logic, and criteria for what is considered objective knowledge) by educational, political, legal, and business institutions, As we saw earlier, even the development of the Western canon of great literature, including traditional fairy tales, was a product of patriarchal ideology. While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender (masculine or feminine). That is, for most English speaking feminists, the word gender refers not to our, anatomy but to our behavior as socially programmed men and women. I behave "like a woman" (for example, submissively) not because it is natural for me to do so but because I was taught to do so. In fact, all the traits we associate with masculine and feminine behavior are learned, not inborn. All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by promoting gender equality. Thus, all feminist activity can be seen as a form of activism, although the word is usually applied to feminist activity that directly promotes social change through political activity such as public demonstrations, boycotts, voter education and registration, the provision of hot-lines for rape victims and shelters for abused women, and the like. Although frequently falsely portrayed in opposition to "family values," feminists continue to lead the struggle for better family policies such as nutrition and health care for mothers and children; parental leave; and high-quality, affordable day care. Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience, including the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not. Of course, the assumptions listed above are related, overlapping ideas, and, together, they imply that patriarchal ideology has a pervasive deeply rooted influence on the way we think, speak, see ourselves, and view the world in which we live. The pervasiveness of patriarchal ideology raises some important questions for feminist theory. For example, if patriarchal ideology influences our identity and experience so strongly, how can we ever get beyond it? If our modes of thinking and our language are patriarchal, how can we ever think or speak differently? In other words, if the fabric of our existence is patriarchal, how can we ever become non-patriarchal? Some Questions Feminist Critics Ask about Literary Texts (Tyson 101) The questions that follow are offered to summarize feminist approaches to literature. Approaches that attempt to develop a specifically female framework for the analysis of women's writing (such as #4 and #5 below) are often referred to as gynocriticism. 1. 2. 3. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy How are women portrayed? How do these portrayals relate to the gender issues of the period in which the novel was written or is set? In other words, does the work reinforce or undermine patriarchal ideology? (In the first case, we might say that the text has a patriarchal agenda. In the second case, we might say that the text has a feminist agenda. Texts that seem to both reinforce and undermine patriarchal ideology might be said to be ideologically conflicted.) What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy and/or about the ways in which women's situations in the world – economic, political, social, or psychological – might be improved? What does the work suggest about the ways in which race, class, and/or other cultural factors intersect with gender in producing women's experience? Feminist Criticism 2 4. 5. 6. 7. What does the work suggest about women's creativity? In order to answer this question, biographical data about the author and historical data about the culture in which she lived will be required. What might an examination of the author's style contribute to the ongoing efforts to delineate a specifically feminine form of writing (écriture féminine)? What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operations of patriarchy? Has the literary work been ignored or neglected in the past? Why? Or, if recognized in the past, is the work ignored or neglected now? Why? What role does the work play in terms of women’s literary history and literary tradition? Depending upon the literary work in question, we might ask one or any combination of these questions. Or we might come up with a useful question not listed here. These are just some starting points to get us thinking about literary works in productive feminist ways. Keep in mind that not all feminist critics will interpret the same work in the same way even if they focus on the same feminist concepts. As in every field, even expert practitioners disagree. Our goal is to use feminist theory to help enrich our reading of literary works; to help us see some important ideas they illustrate that we might not have seen so clearly or so deeply without feminist theory; and to help us see the ways in which patriarchal ideology blinds us to our own participation in, or at least complicity with, sexist agendas. What feminist critics do (Barry 133) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women. Revalue women's experience. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'. Examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life, with a view to breaking them down, seeing reading as a political act, and showing the extent of patriarchy. 6. Recognise the role of language in making what is social and constructed seem transparent and 'natural'. 7. Raise the question of whether men and women are 'essentially' different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different. 8. Explore the question of whether there is a female language, an écriture féminine, and whether this is also available to men. 9. ‘Re-read’ psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of female and male identity. 10. Question the popular notion of the death of the author, asking whether there are only 'subject positions…constructed in discourse, or whether, on the contrary, the experience (e.g. of a black or lesbian writer) is central. 11. Make dear the ideological base of supposedly 'neutral' or 'mainstream' literary interpretations. STOP and THINK General: Within feminism there is a strong emphasis on the 'constructedness' of femininity, that is, on such matters as conditioning and socialisation, and the influence of images and representations of femininity in literature and culture. All these formulations are ways of avoiding 'essentialism', which is the contrary view that there is some natural, given essence of the feminine, that is universal and unchangeable. Anti-essentialism has for some years now been a dominant concept in critical theory, but there is some awareness, too, that it is a notion which leaves us with certain difficulties. For instance, does anti-essentialism, by making it hard to make any generalisations about women, also make it difficult to politicize women as a group? Does it tend to reduce identity to the sum of circumstances, perhaps in spite of our 'instinctive' feelings that identity may be deeper than that? Is the fact that we have such feelings admissable as evidence - on either side? And in any case, what would constitute evidence on either side of this question? Sources: Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002. Print. 133-134. Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999. Print.