Feminist Criticism
Feminist Criticism
Feminist Criticism
Origin
Feminist Criticism - analysis of the depiction of women and their relation to the woman reader by male authors. Gynocriticism - the study of womens writing.
Female Role
Consider the roles and situations of female characters. Make lists of different aspects of the female characters place in the overall story. Include anecdotal scenarios that will back up your point of view.
Female Relationship
Look at the relationship of female characters to each other. Examine any discrepancies that might shed light on the overall role of females in the story.
Look at the vocational roles of women in literature. Much of literary criticism can be applied to the workplace. Studying the work that each character does provides a great starting point for analyzing the whole of the work.
Questions cont...
How are attitudes explicit or implicit concerning heterosexual or homosexual relationships? Are these relationships sources of conflict?Do they provide resolutions to conflicts? Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about men and women and same-sex relationships?
For centuries, women in literature, the roles of both men and women and how they were represented were not a focus of literary criticism. This theory finally examines how women and men are represented and deals with the importance of women in literature.
If this theory is the only one applied to a text, it can be rather limiting. It only examines one element of the text.
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