scholarly journals Translating Woman: Reading the Female through the Male

2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Henitiuk

Abstract Feminist literary criticism has argued that our understanding of literary paradigms, metaphors, and meaning in general is profoundly affected by the gender of both author and audience. Critics of this school posit that a woman's experience comprises unique perceptions and emotions, and that women and men do not inhabit an identical world, or at the very least do not view it identically, in that sexual difference as a social construct has implications for how one interprets as well as how one is interpreted. This article discusses the nature of the text/reader transaction, and the effect on the dialogue between a woman writer and her audience of mediation by a male critic and translator.

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun Ok Jeong ◽  
Yolanda Dreyer

The aim of the article is to discuss the situation of Korean women from political, social, cultural and religious perspectives in a postmodern context. Postmodernity implies a denial of the “absolute”, including “absolute power” of men over women. Heideggerian thinking rejects the modernistic privileged status of the Cartesian subject. In this article postmodern anti-foundational, anti-totalizing, and demystifying cate-gories are used to critique patriarchy in Korean society and literature in order to analyze social movements and cultural-religious values in Korea. It discusses a representation of sexual difference and values by means of feminist literary criticism. The article consists of a reflection on the relationship between theory and praxis in feminist Practical Theology, Korean women’s experience, the epistemology of post-modernity, and the empowerment of Korean women.


Author(s):  
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Feminist literary criticism looks at literature assuming its production from a male-dominated perspective. It re-examines canonical works to show how gender stereotypes are involved in their functioning. It examines (and often rediscovers) works by women for a possible alternative voice. A study of the social suppression and minimalization of women’s literature becomes necessary. These questions emerge: What is sexual difference and how has it been represented? How has the representation of woman relied on a presupposition of inequality between the sexes? Is there a feminine essence, biological or otherwise, that produces ‘women’s writing’? Feminists who believe that a ‘woman’ is culturally or socially constructed look for evidence of that process in literature. The socio-cultural and politico-economic construction of sexual difference is ‘gender.’ A study of the difference between sexual and gender difference can establish alliances with gay and lesbian studies. Feminist criticism sometimes relates to psychoanalysis and/or Marxism, criticizing their masculinism and using their resources. It expands into film/video as well as social-scientific or philosophical texts. Feminists sensitive to racism and imperialism demonstrate the culture-specificity of all of the above.


PMLA ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy K. Miller

Feminist literary criticism over the past decade has raised the important issue of woman's relationship to the production of prose fiction. Central to the inquiry have been both the desire to identify the specificity of such a “corpus” and the reluctance to define it by inherited notions of sexual difference. Reading Mme de Lafayette's La Princesse de Cléves with George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss in the context of this double agenda suggests the possibility of deciphering a female erotics that structures the plots of women's fiction, plots that reject the narrative logic of the dominant discourse. Traditionally, the critical establishment has condemned these plots as implausible and generally assigned women's novels a marginal position in literary history. Perhaps the grounds of that judgment are less aesthetic than ideological.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 341
Author(s):  
Dipa Nugraha

Abstract: Sociology of literature is widely used in Indonesian literary criticism since its introduction in 1978 by Sapardi Djoko Damono. However, there is a doubt in recent Indonesian literary criticism to accept feminist literary criticism in some way as part of sociology of literature whilst it is already that feminism deals with social construct and patriarchy practice in society. This article aims to show that sociology of literature in the form of feminist sociology and feminist literary criticism are not contradictory as one claims. This is a systematic literature review. The method of collecting data is extensive close reading on sociology of literature, feminist sociology, and feminist literary criticism. Based on the extensive close reading, there are at least five models can be used in feminist sociologal approach: through reading agenda, using anachronistic reading, on the marketing strategy and endorsement, on the situation of the readers’ activity, and based on writer’s situation and consciousness. This article shows that feminist sociological approach in literature and feminist literary criticism are not in conflict as the two come from feminism. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Samina Akhtar ◽  
Muhammad Rauf ◽  
Saima Ikram ◽  
Gulrukh Raees

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.


Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer

The aim of the article is to argue that the sexual difference between female and male should be regarded as soteriologically indifferent. Though a biological reality of being human, sexuality is profoundly influenced by social constructs and the institution of marriage itself is a social construct. In this article the biological and social aspects are taken into account in a theological approach which on the one hand is interested in the relationship between God and human beings, and on the other in the way in which the Bible elucidates sexuality and marriage. The article indicates that the idea of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as being equal to Godgiven “holy matrimony” has mythological origins. It focuses on these origins and on the multifarious forms of marital arrangements and models.


Literator ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-88
Author(s):  
J. W. Du Plessis ◽  
D. H. Steenberg

Feminists feel that in literary criticism not enough consideration is given to feminism as an ideology in the production of texts. According to them, existing literary criticism is strongly man-centred. This is especially true of the practice of South African literary criticism. Although feminism does not have at its disposal a formulated feminist literary criticism, a great deal of research has been done in this direction abroad. This is especially the case in Europe and America. Feminist literary critics apply themselves to the representation of the woman in works by male authors and an analysis of feminine experience in the production of texts by women. This article is an exploration of the Anglo-American and French approaches in feminist literary criticism. An attempt is made to formulate the aims of a possible South African feminist literary criticism in order that not only the general norms, but also the feminist codes in the production of a text, speak towards the final interpretation of a work.


LITERA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-436
Author(s):  
Robiatul Adawiyah ◽  
Muakibatul Hasanah

Seiring berkembangnya zaman, tradisi yang mengengkang kebebasan kaum perempuan mulai diperjuangkan untuk dihapuskan melalui gerakan feminisme. Penyuaraan hak-hak perempuan tidak hanya dilakukan melalui gerakan-gerakan secara nyata, namun juga dilakukan secara halus dengan memasukkan ideologi-ideologi feminsime melalui karya sastra. Penelitian ini bertujuan mendeskripsikan bentuk ketidakadilan gender dan bentuk perlawanan perempuan terhadap stigma inferioritas yang selama ini melekat pada diri perempuan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kritik sastra feminis. Sumber data penelitian adalah novel Midah (Si Manis Bergigi Emas) karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer dan novel Di Balik Kerling Saatirah karya Ninik M. Kuntarto. Teknik yang digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data-data bentuk feminisme yang ada di dalam kedua novel tersebut adalah dengan membaca kritis dan membaca berkesinambungan. Analisis dilakukan dengan cara (1) kodifikasi data, (2) pengelompokan data, (3) interpretasi makna teks, (4) deskripsi bentuk ketidakadilan gender dan bentuk perlawanan gender, serta (5) penyimpulan hasil analsisis. Hasil penelitian sebagai berikut. Pertama, ketidakadilan gender dialami oleh dua sosok perempuan dalam dua novel berbeda, yaitu Midah dan Saatirah. Midah mendapatkan perlakuan tidak adil dari perjodohan yang dilakukan oleh orangtuanya dan dia juga mendapatkan ketidakadilan dari sosok pria yang menjadikannya budak pemuas nafsu. Saatirah mendapatkan perlakuan tidak adil dalam hubungan rumah tangganya. Kedua, bentuk perlawanan yang dilakukan oleh Midah dan Saatirah adalah dengan berusaha bangkit dari keterpurukan untuk membuktikan eksistensinya dan berusaha memperoleh kebahagian dengan cara yang mereka kehendaki tanpa ada campur tangan dari orang lain. Kata Kunci: stigma, inferioritas, marginal, feminismAGAINST THE STIGMA OF WOMEN’S INFERIORITY IN MIDAH (SI MANIS BERGIGI EMAS) A NOVEL BY PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER  AND DI BALIK KERLING SAATIRAH A NOVEL BY NINIK M. KUNTARTO AbstractAlong with the development of the times, struggles for traditions that curb the freedom of women began to be eliminated through the feminism movement. Voicing women's rights is not only done through real movements, but also subtly by incorporating feminine ideologies through literary works. This study aims to describe the form of gender injustice and the form of women's resistance to the inferiority stigma that has been attached to women. This study uses a feminist literary criticism approach. Sources of research data are the novel Midah (Si Manis Bergigi Emas) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the novel Di Balik Kerling Saatirah by Ninik M. Kuntarto. The technique used to collect data on the forms of feminism in both novels is critical reading and continuous reading. The analysis was carried out by (1) data codification, (2) data grouping, (3) interpretation of the meaning of the text, (4) descriptions of forms of gender injustice and forms of gender resistance, and (5) concluding the results of the analysis. The research results are as follows. First, gender injustice is experienced by two female figures in two different novels, namely Midah and Saatirah. Midah received unfair treatment from an arranged marriage by her parents and he also received injustice from a male figure who made her a slave to the satisfaction of lust. Saatirah received unfair treatment in her household relationship. Second, the form of resistance carried out by Midah and Saatirah is to try to rise from adversity to prove their existence and try to get happiness in the way they want without interference from others. Keywords: stigma, inferiority, marginal, feminine


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