scholarly journals In Quest for Identity & Oppressed Identities in Michelle Cliff’s Abeng (1990): An Eco-Feminist Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ahmad Yahya Alghamdi
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Women Authors ◽  
Vital Part ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Surrounding World ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism

The feminist movement is ever transforming because it challenges the injustices continually practiced against women. A vital part of the movement is ecofeminism, which addresses issues surrounding the degradation of both women and nature. According to eco-feminist theory, patriarchal societies consist of a culture/nature dualism in which culture and males are both valued: culture is valued for itself, and males are as being associated with culture. Conversely, females are associated with nature, and both of them are devalued. Eco-feminist literary criticism, which is a part of ecocriticism, involves analyzing a work by focusing on gender and/or race oppression, oppressed identities and their correlation with subjugation of the natural world. This paper aims at examining the eco-feminist aspects in Michelle Cliff’s quasi-autobiographical novel, Abeng (1990). The focus is on identifying how the female protagonists interact with their surrounding world. Cliff highlights the struggles that females face when trying to make their voices heard, identities recognized and to perform tasks equal to men. The importance of showcasing women authors who write from an eco-feminist perspective is that it proclaims that societies in which females are treated as equals to males will be in accord with nature.

scholarly journals Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre: the beginning of an emancipatory process between literary girls and real girls

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Marianna Alfonsi
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Charlotte Bronte ◽  
Female Child ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Jane Eyre ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
The One

Giving a right place to literature for children in the context of general literature means to recognizing its roots and influences in a wider landscape. Charlotte Brontë work inserted in this context has a double meaning both because it links adult and child female characters (The italian society of literates has defined them «personagge»), and because it brings us back to the roots of a literature written by women with female protagonists able to undermine the socially approved traditional rules. Recovering Jane Eyre is the first step to be taken to trace a new way of writing about women and telling about “the becoming” of women, delineating a parallel path to bildungsroman, in which the feminine youth has not found full consideration. To define an itinerary for women and girls it is then necessary to analyze the studies of feminist literary criticism that has investigated the relationship between women and literature since 70s, both from the writer’s and reader’s point of view. The objective thus becomes the one to recover the history of that link that unites the presence of women and girls in literature and their search for an autonomous space of imagination, thought and action. Inserting Jane Eyre in the children’s literature allows us to trace the birth of the authentic female child, and the beginning of an emancipatory process that poses important questions about the role of reading and literature in social and educational contexts.

scholarly journals From Feminization of Fiction to Feminine Metafiction in Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Woolf’s Orlando

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wassila Hamza Reguig-Mouro
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
Literature History ◽  
Women’S Writing

Feminism developed and widened its scope to different disciplines such as literature, history, and sociology. It is associated with various other schools and theories like Marxism and poststructuralism, as well. In the field of literature, feminist literary criticism managed to throw away the dust that cumulated on women’s writing and succeeded in raising interest in those forgotten female artists. Some critics in the field of feminism claim that there are no separate spheres, masculine and feminine, whereas others have opted for post-feminist thinking. Some women writers used metafiction to write literary criticism. Therefore, how do Gaskell and Woolf implement metafiction in their stories? Accordingly, this work aims at shedding light on Wives and Daughters by Gaskell and Orlando by Woolf to tackle metafiction from a feminist perspective. Examples from both novels about intertextuality, narration, and other aspects, that are part of metafiction, will be provided to illustrate how and where metafiction is used.

Re-reading Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House: A Modern Feminist Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Saima Akter
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Song Bird ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nora Helmer ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
A Doll's House

This article aims to present a re-reading of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House from a feminist perspective. Ibsen’s play is a pioneering feminist play, and he is credited for creating the first real feminist character in the history of theatre. The central female characters are analyzed, and the article also addresses the attitude of society towards women and how they struggle to prove themselves. Feminist literary criticism and feminism constitute the conceptual framework of the paper. In this play, Nora Helmer is under the illusion that her married life is perfect and that she owns what she deserves. Torvald, her husband calls her a ‘twittering lark’, ‘squirrel’, ‘song-bird’, and she is pleased with it. However, her illusion shatters when she faces the reality of finding herself being treated like a doll. As soon as she realizes that there exists an individual self of her, she revolts. She leaves the house, challenging the social institutions which contribute to women’s subjugation. Nora protests against the ill-treatment towards her by society for her willingness to get her right back, for her self-respect, and for finding herself.  

scholarly journals From Feminization of Fiction to Feminine Metafiction in Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Woolf’s Orlando

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Wassila HAMZA REGUIG MOURO
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
Literature History ◽  
Women’S Writing

Feminism developed and widened its scope to different disciplines such as literature, history, and sociology. It is associated with various other schools and theories like Marxism and poststructuralism, as well. In the field of literature, feminist literary criticism managed to throw away the dust that cumulated on women’s writing and succeeded in raising interest in those forgotten female artists. Some critics in the field of feminism claim that there are no separate spheres, masculine and feminine, whereas others have opted for post-feminist thinking. Some women writers used metafiction to write literary criticism. Therefore, how do Gaskell and Woolf implement metafiction in their stories? Accordingly, this work aims at shedding light on Wives and Daughters by Gaskell and Orlando by Woolf to tackle metafiction from a feminist perspective. Examples from both novels about intertextuality, narration, and other aspects, that are part of metafiction, will be provided to illustrate how and where metafiction is used.

Feminist Theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pelagia Goulimari
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Continuous Transition ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
Diverse Field ◽  
Iris Marion Young

Feminist theory in the 21st century is an enormously diverse field. Mapping its genealogy of multiple intersecting traditions offers a toolkit for 21st-century feminist literary criticism, indeed for literary criticism tout court. Feminist phenomenologists (Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, Toril Moi, Miranda Fricker, Pamela Sue Anderson, Sara Ahmed, Alia Al-Saji) have contributed concepts and analyses of situation, lived experience, embodiment, and orientation. African American feminists (Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Hortense J. Spillers, Saidiya V. Hartman) have theorized race, intersectionality, and heterogeneity, particularly differences among women and among black women. Postcolonial feminists (Assia Djebar, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Florence Stratton, Saba Mahmood, Jasbir K. Puar) have focused on the subaltern, specificity, and agency. Queer and transgender feminists (Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Susan Stryker) have theorized performativity, resignification, continuous transition, and self-identification. Questions of representation have been central to all traditions of feminist theory.

Blood Relations: Feminist Theory Meets the Uncanny Alien Bug Mother

Hypatia ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda Zwinger
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Feminist Thought ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism

This essay addresses the troubling and uncanny figure of Mother in feminist theory, psychoanalytic theory, literary criticism, and real life. Readings of feminist literary criticism and the films Alien and Aliens explore the liminality of Mother and the consequences for feminist thought and practice of the persistent narrative modes (the sentimental and the gothic) locatable in all of these discourses on/of Motherhood.

scholarly journals The Images of Women in Selected Contemporary Short Stories by Contemporary Filipino Women Writers

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
Hasmina Domato Sarip
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Figures Of Speech ◽  
Filipino Women ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
Images Of Women

This inquiry sought to discover the images of women as portrayed in the contemporary short stories entitled “Fallout” by Maria L.M. Fres-Felix and “Language” by Sunantha Mendoza. Feminist Literary Criticism, specifically liberal, radical, Freudian, socio-cultural, stereotypical feminist perspective were employed to critically analyze the actions and feminist perspective of the female characters. The study attempted to meet the following objectives: 1) to describe the images of women as depicted by the authors in the stories; 2) to identify the dominant devices used in the stories; and, 3) to determine the feminist themes conveyed in the stories. Through examining and analyzing the short stories, different images of women were discovered. The close textual reading resulted in the researcher’s coming up with the following findings: female characters are portrayed as involved, sophisticated, strong-minded, competitive, independent and unconventional. The dominant devices are symbols, juxtaposition, foreshadowing, imagery, idiom, metaphor, irony and figures of speech were effectively utilized in the stories to probe the images of women that are found in each story. Indeed, women will come a long way in facing the battle against patriarchal values.

scholarly journals Aspects of Feminist Writing: A Presentation of Common Issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenakshi Sharma Yadav ◽  
Manoj Kumar Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Feminist Criticism ◽  
Western World ◽  
Literary Scholarship ◽  
Male Domination ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
The Feminine

<strong>Feminist literary criticism</strong> is a <a title="Literary criticism" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_criticism">literary criticism</a> knowledgeable by <a title="Feminist theory" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_theory">feminist theory</a>, or, more broadly, by the politics of <a title="Feminism" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism">feminism</a>. It uses feminist principles and ideology to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to analyze and describe the ways in which literature portrays the narratives of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature. Feminism emerged as an important force in the western world in 1960s when women realized the attitude of their male colleagues who swore about equality, was actually the strategy used by them to keep women subservient, then a revolution by women to fight against them, and against racism and sexism was felt. This awakening spread over and as a result feminist criticism emerged on as an off –shoot of women’s Liberation Movement. Beginning with the interrogation of male-centric literature that portrayed women in a demeaning and oppressed model, theorist such as Marry Ellman, Kate Millet and Germaine Greer challenged past imaginations of the feminine within literary scholarship. It is very important for us to know that who these women writers are, what did they write and what were the sources of their writings. The present paper focuses on some of the above said important aspects of feminist writings and some of famous feminist writers also.

scholarly journals A Legitimate End to Illegitimate Beginning: A Critical Analysis of Mariam’s Character in A Thousand Splendid Suns

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Samina Akhtar ◽  
Muhammad Rauf ◽  
Saima Ikram ◽  
Gulrukh Raees
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Battered Woman ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
Societal Attitude

This paper is an attempt to portray the plight of Mariam that she undergoes due to her illegitimate social status. The study focuses on the critical societal attitude towards the illegitimate unfortunate women. Mariam begins her life with a “harami” status; continues her struggle for personal identity, suffer and endures as a battered woman and leave this world as a woman of consequences by digging herself out of the lower social status that society attached to her. The study analyzes Mariam’s endurance, struggles and resistance in her strenuous journey to attain legitimate ending. The researcher used feminist literary criticism to interpret the text as a research methodology and adopted close textual analysis of the text by Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

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