Page 294 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 27: Elaine Showalter: Four Models of Feminism in
“Feminist Criticism in Wilderness”—Biological and
Linguistic Difference

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
27.1 Critical Importance
27.2 Gynocritics
27.3 Criticism and Controversy
27.4 Summarises of Major Works
27.5 Showalter’s Feminist Critique and Gynocriticism
27.6 Biological and Linguistic Difference
27.7 Summary
27.8 Key-Words
27.9 Review Questions
27.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Examine four models of Feminism.
• Discuss Elaine approach to Feminism.

Introduction

Elaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues.
She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the
concept and practice of gynocritics.
Best known in academic and popular cultural fields, she has written and edited numerous books
and articles focused on a variety of subjects, from feminist literary criticism to fashion, sometimes
sparking widespread controversy, especially with her work on illnesses. Showalter has been a
television critic for People magazine and a commentator on BBC radio and television.
Showalter is a specialist in Victorian literature and the Fin-de-Siecle (turn of the 19th century). Her
most innovative work in this field is in madness and hysteria in literature, specifically in women's
writing and in the portrayal of female characters.
She is the Avalon Foundation Professor Emerita. Her academic honors include a Guggenheim
Fellowship (1977-78) and a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship (1981-82). She is also the past-
president of the Modern Language Association (MLA).
Showalter's best known works are Toward a Feminist Poetics (1979), The Female Malady: Women,
Madness, and English Culture (1830-1980) (1985), Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin
de Siecle (1990), Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997), and Inventing Herself:
Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001). In 2007 Showalter was chair of the judges for the
prestigious British literary award, the Man Booker International Prize.

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