My Guide to Literary Theory: Feminist Literary Theory

Feminist theory first emerges as a literary theory during the women's movement of the 1960s, but it is important to remember that it followed a much older tradition of thought and action around women's equality, and is very much a renewal of those traditions. The foundations of this theory can be found in texts such as: Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex to name a few, but it is not until the 60s that it began to take a theoretical form. The movement realised the significance of the images of women propagated by literature, and saw it vital to combat and question the authority and coherence of those representations. For this reason, feminist literary criticism should not be seen as an offshoot of the feminist movement, but rather, it is intrinsically linked to the movement as a practical tool in influencing attitudes towards women. This makes feminist literary theory an explicitly political theory and that should be kept in mind.

Simone de Beauvoir

Feminist literary theory emerged out of the concern within the feminist movement with conditioning and socialisation as perpetuators of patriarchy. Toril Moi, writing in The Feminist Reader, sets out the distinctions between being feminist, female and feminine. She says that to be a female is a genetic result;  to be a feminist is a political position, but to be feminine is to have certain culturally defined characteristics. Literature is therefore a tool of socialisation, and some would argue the most important one. Literature was setting the parameters of what constituted acceptable versions of the feminine, and what were legitimate aspirations for women. For example, literature of the 19th century features of very few working women, and the women are primarily concerned with finding a marriage partner and the subsequent social position they receive as a result. These forms of socialisation were coined 'mechanisms of patriarchy' and were the primary concern of feminist literary theorists in the 1970s. Feminist theorists aimed to change the mind set in both men and women that was perpetuating sexual inequality by challenging how male writers were representing women. Feminist literary theory begins to expand through the 80s incorporating elements of Marxist, structuralism and linguistic theories. Most importantly, this is when the theory begins to switch its focus from men and on to exploring the female outlook. Returning to prominence the texts of lost or suppressed female writers, and setting out to produce a new literary canon with women at the forefront.

Whilst all feminist literary theory shares a common goal, there are three main discussion points that debates centre around. These debates are: the role of the theory, the nature of language and the value of psychoanalysis.

Debates around the role of theory in feminist criticism can be split between Anglo-American feminist theory and French feminist theory. The Anglo-American approach is one that wishes to take a non-theoretical stance instead maintaining  traditional concepts. It measures representations of women's lives and experiences against those in reality. It does this via the liberal humanist approach of close reading the text, but unlike in liberal humanism, the author and the social context is very much important to the analysis. It should be noted, however, that the English side of the Anglo-American theory, whilst following many of the same principles, differs slightly in that it tends to be closely aligned to Marxism and a socialist feminist outlook that isn't shared by the Americans. In opposition to this, French feminism embraces the theoretical approach;  drawing on a structuralist tradition where the text is never a direct representation of reality. It seeks to explore the hidden structures in the language and representations within the text and how they may be stifling to women.

Dale Spender

The second debate; I find particularly interesting and centres around the need to find a language that is feminine, that is, if it's possible for one to exist. Some feminist theorists suggest that language is inherently oppressive towards women, and therefore, that women writers suffer the handicap of having to use that which is essentially a male instrument used for male purposes. Even further than that, if it is through language that we construct and understand the world around us, then it is a deeply problematic hurdle to the women's movement. In Man Made Language, Dale Spender claims that the rules of meaning in languages are not neutral, but man made, and thus, contain many features which reflect its role as the instrument through which patriarchy finds its expression.
Spender points out that:

"One semantic rule which we can see in operation in the language is that of the male-as-norm. At the outset it may appear to be a relatively innocuous rule for classifying the objects and events of the world, but closer examination exposes it as one of the most pervasive and pernicious rules that has been encoded. While this rule operates we are required to classify the world on the premise that the standard or normal human being is a male one and when there is but one standard, then those who are not of it are allocated to a category of deviation. Hence our fundamental classification scheme is one which divides humanity not into two equal parts (if two is to be the significant number) but into those who are plus male and those who are minus male."

Héléne Cixous

Spender, and other structuralist theorists, have highlighted the need to dismantle the structure, or even recreate the way in which language is used. Hélène Cixous, the mother of poststructuralist feminist theory, launched in The Laugh of the Medusa the theory of an écriture féminine - a way of writing that leans towards the feminine, and is perhaps, even the sole ownership of women.

The final debating point surrounding feminist literary theory is one on the usefulness of psychoanalysis. Some feminist theorists believe that Freud, and his theories, are one of the prime sources of patriarchal attitudes in society. I have, in my last blog, highlighted his problematic theory that all women experience penis envy, but many theorists believe that there are some positives to take from psychoanalysis; particularly if the Lacanian approach is taken. In Lacan's psychoanalysis the penis envy need not be a want of the actual organ itself, but rather, the penis acts as an emblem of social power; a power that is unattainable by neither women, nor men. There is also great value taken my feminist theory in the idea that female sexuality is not a natural occurrence, but formed by early experiences. That principle is one of the foundations of how feminist literary theory aims to tackle inequalities.

So I want to now move on to how feminist theory is applied to texts. What do feminist critics do? Feminist critics;

• Rethink the canon by rediscovering texts written by women.
• Examine representations of women in literature.
• Challenge representations of women as 'other', 'lack' or part of 'nature'.
• Examine power dynamics in both the text and life with a view of breaking them down.
• Recognize the role of language in making what is social and constructed seem transparent and 'natural'.
• Question whether differences between men and women are biological or socially constructed.
• Explore the existence of an écriture féminine. 
• Re-evaluate the role of psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of how male and female identity is attained.
• Question the notion of the death of the author - weighing up the subject of text against the experience of women authors.
• Highlight the ideological bias of supposedly neutral literary interpretations.

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

If you want to read an example of feminist literary theory in application, Gilbert and Gubar's text
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination is, if slightly outdated, one of the most renowned examples.

Feminist literary theory is very much still prominent in literary circles, and will continue to be for as long as inequalities exist between men and women. The theory consists of differing debates, but all remain relevant today, and the theory as a whole is one which is constantly evolving and re-evaluating its approach. In reaction to all this male-female categorizing, emerged a theory that denounced these binary ways of thinking. Next time: Queer Theory.