Akhter 1

Tanjila Akhter

Professors name

English

5 March 2017

Feminist Literary Criticism

Feminism is a political and social ideology and philosophy that promotes the gender

equality and womens rights. It defines as the belief in the social, economic and political

equality of the sexes.1 Feminist literary criticism draws on the rationale of Feminist theory and

employs a framework of scrutinizing literature from a feminist theory lens. This sort of literary

criticism seeks to highlight, inspect and comprehend male dominance and superiority depiction

in literature. The perception of literature has largely been revolutionized due to Feminist literary

criticism. This contribution has added a new angle to literary discourse.

With the enlightenment changed that and women demanded that the new freedoms being

promoted be applied to both genders. Women felt empowered to demand equal rights and this

culminated broadly into the three waves of feminist movement. The initial literary criticism

began with the women speaking out against exclusion of women rights in legal matters (such as

after the French Revolution). Female intellectuals began speaking out against the notion that

women were inferior to men. Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of

Women in 1972 in England in which she expressed that women are as capable as men are and

equally possess rationality. She strongly demanded that women be included in politics, education

and working environment.

1 Encyclopedia Britannica
 Akter 2

The origins of Feminist Literary Criticism came with the Second wave feminism, which

happened during the Civil rights movements of the 1960s. However, a lot of Feminist writing

before this period complimented the efforts of the Feminist Literary Criticism. Virginia Woolf is

one such figure whose writings influenced greatly on feminist literary criticism. Proto-feminist

writings are sometimes attributed to Geoffrey Chaucers The Wife of Bath. The Feminist

literary movement began by criticism of female portrayal as a sexual object with no rationality

and inferior to men. Intellectuals such as Mary Ellman and Kate Millet contributed in this way.

Other scholars began working on psychoanalytic theories of feminism, which delved into

understanding women apprehensions in forming their societal role.

The Civil rights movement had Blacks demanding their rights too. The Black feminist literary

scholars made a stand and took up a movement to establish the voices of Black women among

the male-dominated discourse on Blacks role and place in the American society. A few of the

many prominent scholars of the time were Hazel Carby, Nellie McKay and Barbara

Christian.These along with many other voices influenced greatly on establishing the role of

Black women in the post-civil rights movement.

The feminist movement has undoubtedly affected greatly on the literary criticism and

opened new discourses and novel thinking in the area of Feminist Literary criticism. The

discourse has also influenced a number of other disciplines including philosophy, linguistics,

sociology and law. Undoubtedly Feminist Literary Criticism has empowered a lot of women and

enabled feminist thinking to penetrate higher levels of social hierarchy challenging States

policies and forcing powerful elite to consider women a very active and dynamic part of the

society.
 Akter 3

References

Burkett, E., & Brunell,L. Feminism, Encyclopaedia Britannica inc., (2016),

https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism

Plain, G., & Sellers, S. A History of Feminist Literary Criticism. (2007), Cambridge

University Press, New York.