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Feminism
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To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already
a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality
as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be
categorized into three general groups:
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theories having an essentialist focus (including
psychoanalytic and French feminism);
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theories aimed at defining or establishing a
feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and
re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a
less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism);
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theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual
politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural
feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
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Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it
meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often
deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially
constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though
perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a
groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the
"othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in
feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many
cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time
(e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th
century but was virtually unknown until her work was
"re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the
writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and
collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of
Literature by Women. However, merely unearthing women's literature
did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the
amount of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male
beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The
Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics
(1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics,
Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975),
Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's
A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan
Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of
the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual,
and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
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Further references:
- R. Selden, P. Widowson, A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory,
ch. 8.
- T. de Lauretis, "Upping the Anti [sic] in Feminist Theory." in The
Cultural Syudies Reader, 74-89.
Suggested Websites:
Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism refers to a historical phase undergone by
third-world countries after the decline of colonialism, e.g., the European
empires. Although the term, postcolonialism, generally refers to the period
after colonialism the distinction is not always made. After the decline of
imperialism, countries such as Asia, African, and the Caribbeans were left to
rebuild their countries, their culture, government, etc. In the process, many
third-world writers focus on both colonialism and the changes created in a
postcolonial culture. Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are
the attempt to both resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions
about their culture. Edward Said, for example, uses the word Orientalism to
describe the discourse about the East constructed by the West.
Further references:
- Said, Edward. Orientalism.
- Ashcroft, Bill. Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The
Post-Colonial
Studies Reader.
- R. Selden, P. Widowson, A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary
Theory, ch. 7 (188-193).
Suggested Websites:
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