Feminist Theories

Semester 2
Module IV:  Feminist Theories

Language, institutions, and social power structures have reflected patriarchal interests throughout history; and this has had a profound impact on women’s ability to express themselves and the quality of their daily lives.  This combination of patriarchal oppression and women’s resistance to it is apparent in many literary and other cultural texts. 

• Essay Prescribed: Elaine Showalter. “Towards a Feminist Poetics.”Women Writing and Writing about Women.  London: Croom Helm, 1979. Pp.10-22

As a political and literary movement feminism aims to liberate women from oppressing power structures. The writings of the feminists try to reveal the basic asymmetry between the terms “masculine” and “feminine” and argue against biological determinism and socialization used by patriarchal forces in the construction of gender and sexuality.

        I. Schools of Feminist Thought

·         French Feminism

·         Marxist Feminism

·         Gynocriticism

·         Black Feminism

·         LGBT Studies

·         Latin American Feminist Thought
     Islamic Feminism

·         Indian Feminist Thought

       II. Major Concepts

·         Castration complex

·         Ecriture feminine

·         Electra Complex

·         Femininity

·         Gender

·         Gynocriticism

·         Herstory/Hertory

·         Hysteria

·         Jouissance

·         Libido

·         Misogyny

·         Patriarchy

·         Phallologocentrism

·         Phallocentrism

·         Sex/Gender system

·         Woman as the “Other”

·         Womanism
      Women's Studies

        III. Major Figures

·      Mary Wollstonecraft

·      John Stuart Mill

·      Virginia Woolf

·      Simone de Beauvoir

·      Juliet Mitchell

·      Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

·      Elaine Showalter

·      Helene Cixous

·      Kate Millet

·         Julia Kristeva

·         Luce Irigaray

·         Judith Butler

·         Tarabai Shinde
Pandita Ramabai
Ramabai Ranade
Sharmila Rege
Urvashi Butalia
Vandana Shiva
Vina Mazumdar
Gail Omvedt
Sarojini Sahoo

               IV. Major Works

·         Mary Wollstonecraft- The Vindication of the Rights of Women

·         John Stuart Mill- The Subjection of Women

·         Friedrich Engels- The Origin of the Family

·         Virginia Woolf- A Room of One’s Own

·         Simone de Beauvoir- The Second Sex

·         Juliet Mitchell- Women: The Longest Revolution

·         Sheila Rowbotham- Women’s Consciousness, Man’s World

·         Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar- The Madwoman in the Attic

·         Elaine Showalter- A Literature of their Own

·         Helene Cixous- The Laugh of the Medusa

·         Kate Millet- Sexual Politics

·         Juliia Kristeva- Powers of Horror

·         Judith Butler- Gender Trouble

V.Sample Reading

·         sfs.scnu.edu.cn/hhzhang/stugdn/.../2002/.../Feminism_in_Jane_Eyre.doc

·         The Wide Sargasso Sea- http://www.disclic.unige.it/pub/17/panizza.pdf