Page 321 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 28: Elaine Showalter: Four Models of Feminism in “Feminist Criticism in Wilderness”—Psychological...

categories of (some kinds of) writing by (some) women to group texts in order to analyze Notes
whether or not, and how, they exhibit a gendered coherence, for example, in studies of the
female gothic novel. As feminist scholars range more broadly, they discover women's literary
traditions in many times and cultures without insisting that they resemble those nineteenth-
century English novels central to early gynocriticism. Some women's traditions, like European
Renaissance women's love lyrics, modify dominant male forms. Women's literature from
more sex-segregated societies, like Persian manuscripts by and for women, may assume
more autonomous shapes, and some contemporary literature, like African-American fiction
by women, may set standards for writing by men, rather than the reverse.

28.4 Key-Words
1. Stanza : A grouping of lines of verse, usually forming a self-contained pattern of rhymed
lines—thus stanzas of a poem are normally of equal length.
2. Symbol : A figure in which one object represents another object (often an abstract quality):
conventional symbols include, for example, scales for justice, a dove for peace, a
goat for lust, a lion for strength, rose for beauty or love, etc. A symbol is a kind of
metaphor in which the subject of the metaphor is not made explicit, and may be
mysterious or undecidable.
28.5 Review Questions

1. What are the models in Showalter's Feminist Criticism in Wilderness?
2. What is the feminist criticism in Cinderella?
3. Elaine Showalter the feminist critic? Discuss
4. What do you mean by the Criticisms of the Biomedical Model? Discuss.
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(c) (ii)(b) (iii)(a)

28.6 Further Readings

1. Hutcheon, Linda A poetics of postmodernism, London: Routledge, 1988.
2. Kennedy, X.J., Dana Gioia, Mark Bauerlein, Handbook of Literary Terms:
Literature, Language, Theory, 1st edition, New Delhi: Pearson, 2007.
3. Lodge, David (ed.) Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, London: Longman,
1972.
4. Rice, Philip and Patricia Waugh (eds.) A Modern Literary Theory: A Reader, 3rd
edition, London: Arnold, 1999.
5. Sethuraman, V.S. and Ramaswamy (eds.) The English Critical Tradition, Volume
II, New Delhi, Macmillan, 1977.
6. Seturaman, V.S. (ed.) Contemporary Criticism: An Anthology, New Delhi:
Macmillan, 2008.

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