Page 274 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes • Gynocriticism arose as a feminist critique as a result of the Freudian psychoanalytic perspective
of the female inadequacy. According to Freudian psychology, the female possesses a
psychological deficiency in the lack of male anatomy and as a result suffers envy and feelings
of inadequacy and injustice combined with feelings of intellectual inferiority.
• A second approach used by American feminists is termed "gynocriticism." This method of
inquiry takes as its subject the writings of women who have produced what Elaine C.
Showalter, who coined the term "gynocriticism," calls "a literature of their own."

23.8 Key-Words

1. Female Self-Discovery : A literature of their own; stop imitating others = Gynocriticism.

23.9 Review Questions

1. What do gynocritics look for?
2. What are the links between women writers; how does female influence work?
3. Is there a coherent "muted" tradaition?
4. What are the problems that have plagued attempts to define a "female" traditon or aesthetic?
5. What is a "female aesthetic"? -- The idea that women's art is different from men's, that they
create differently.
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(b) (ii)(b)

23.10 Further Readings

1. Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. 1949. Reprint. New York: Random House,
1990.
2. Belsey, Catherine. Critical Practice. New York: Methuen, 1980.
3. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New
York: Routledge, 1990.
4. Delany, Sheila. Writing Women: Women Writers and Women in Literature,
Medieval to Modern. New York: Schocken, 1984.
5. Eagleton, Mary, ed. Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader. New York: Blackwell,
1988.
6. Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.
7. Finkle, Laurie A. Feminist Theory, Women's Writing. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 1992.

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