Feminism and Feminist Literature: A Historical Overview - Prof. Botella, Apuntes de Administración de Empresas

¡Descarga Feminism and Feminist Literature: A Historical Overview - Prof. Botella y más Apuntes en PDF de Administración de Empresas solo en Docsity! e TEXTUALITY AND GENDER: FEMINISM AND FEMINIST LITERATURE Feminism •  One of the fundamental “minority” fronts in postmodernity. •  Generally, feminism is a series of struggles, extended in Ime, for the recogniIon of the equality of women in all areas of life. •  Encompasses both poliIcal and social mobilizaIon AND intellectual work (in history, literature, philosophy etc). Feminism: usually historicized in (3) Waves •  Female suffrage struggles ! Regarded the 1st Feminist Wave •  Demand for the vote is constant throughout the 19th Century, but the “suffragefe” moment: from turn of the Century to 1920 •  1920: 19th Amendment of the US ConsItuIon: women granted the vote. •  Leaders: LucreIa Mof, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. •  Adjacent feminist struggles: equal contract and property rights (women’s property remained their own instead of passing automaIcally to their husbands). •  Suffragism: accompanied by rise of the “New Woman” (independent, sporIve, o\en self- supporIng, at least part of her life). •  And followed by the flapper era: two styles of women empowerment. Second Wave Feminism: 1960s to 1980s (roughly) •  Arises as a response to a setback in women’s progress towards equality and emancipaIon. •  From relaIve independence from the 1920s to WWII to gradual retreat to the home, the family, husband, children. •  1920s-1940s: rise in number of women in the professions, social and poliIcal acIvism, art, research . . . But post-war backlash. Ideology of feminine mysIque: •  Too much educaIon makes women unsuitable for their true role and place in society. •  Women fulfil themselves as wives and mothers (not through educaIon or work). They must be prefy and cook well. •  Careerism makes women neuroIc, lonely, and bifer. •  Plus: the home is a lovely place. Made afracIve by the media, adverIsement, and a huge industry of appliances, TVs, etc etc. (War industries recycled). •  Withdrawal to the house: linked to “suburbanizaIon” of the US. •  White flight: city centers are seen as undesirable; the suburbs are healthier and more pleasant. •  Yet Friedan discovered that suburban middle- class life was not a paradise. •  Suburban bliss was o\en a flop. •  Then why do all this? Be the franIc housewife? The perfect mother? The sexy housewife? Have the best garden in the neighborhood? . . . . •  . . . And, in the meanIme, NOT do anything that you need (intellectually, emoIonally) or want to do for yourself? •  The answer is—again—because of the effect of an ideology. •  The struggles of 2nd Wave Feminism are largely ideological. •  They consist of an examinaIon of the funcIoning of the mind-set, convicIons, prejudices etc etc that underpin patriarchy. •  Ideas have social effects. Society is the effect of ideology. (Remember Louis Althusser?) •  Women are not “forced” to live in certain ways as much as expected to and they internalize these expectaIons. •  Patriarchal (anI-feminist) ideology is presented as “the natural thing”. •  “Things have always been this way. Women have always . . . .” •  (Roland Barthes: ideology works by turning history into nature). •  Temporary states of affairs are presented as unmovable, natural arrangements. •  Ideological work is important HOWEVER, patriarchal oppresion remains also physical and economic: •  Women were sIll subordinated in almost all aspects of life (absent from high professional posiIons, discriminated in all areas of employment, paid less, seen as accessories with no life of their own, etc.) •  And violence against women is not exactly a thing of the past in the 1960s (or now . . .) Second Wave Feminism: two “branches” •  Equal Rights Feminism: –  (merely) against discriminaIon – basically “assimilaIonist”: to incorporate women into the mainstream of American life”. •  Radical Feminism: –  links feminism to broader forms of oppression – not to assimilate into the mainstream but to TRANSFORM it beyond recogniIon •  Equal Rights Femism’s most visible organizaIon: N.O.W ! NaIonal OrganizaIon of Women, founded in 1966 by Friedan (first president), Gloria Steinhem, Ella Abzug. •  “The purpose of NOW is to take acIon to bring women into full parIcipaIon in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibiliIes thereof . . . .” •  Focus: educaIon, employment, poliIcal representaIon, posiIve media images of women. •  Radical thinkers •  Kate Millef, Sexual Poli8cs (1970): on the unspoken mysoginy in culture and literature •  Shulamith Firestone, The Dialec8cs of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolu8on (1970) •  Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will (1975): on sexual violence as a form of male control •  Anne Koedt, “The Myth of Vaginal Orgasm” (1968): rethinks women’s sexuality •  Radical 2nd Wave Feminism: not a unified front ! self-divided and conflicIve; numerous splinter posiIons. •  Some: morphs into slightly conservaIve posiIons: anI-pornography campaigns, “anI-sex” feminism. (Andrea Dworking, “Pornography: The New Terrorism,” 1977) •  Some connected with minority concerns: Third World Women’s Alliance (1970-1980)—against imperialism, racism, sexism Other Literature of the 2nd Wave •  Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) •  Poet and essayist •  Of Woman Born (1976) •  On Lies, Secrets, and Silence (1979) •  Blood, Bead, and Poetry (1986) Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian novelist •  Surfacing (1972) •  Lady Oracle (1979) •  The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) •  The Blind Assassin (2000) 3rd Wave Feminism (1980s forward) •  Grew out of Radical Feminism and of minority criIcism of (assimilaIonist) 2nd Wave feminism. What was the trouble? •  2nd Wave Equal Rights Feminism was –  simplisIc in the representaIon of women as a unified, homogeneous group. –  It was mostly white, middle class, and heterosexist. (N.O.W: homophobic) – Did not take into account differences of class and race in women’s experience. •  African American criIc bell hooks writes: “Black women have felt forced to choose between a black movement that primarily serves the interests of black male patriarchs, and a white women’s movement which primarily serves the interests of racist white women” (Ain’t I a Woman 9). •  More open than 2nd wave feminism to non- convenIonal sexual opIons—like queer poliIcs and queer theory and wriIng later on. •  Embraces derogatory terms such as “bitch,” “slut”: empowerment from misbehaving— from being “bad women” who do refuse to do what they are told. Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2007) •  Borderlands / La Frontera (1987) •  Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewri8ng Iden8ty, Spirituality, Reality (1985) Ana CasIllo (1953-) •  The Mixquiahuala Le_ers, 1986. •  Sapogonia, An AnI- Romance in 3/8 meter, 1990. •  Ana CasIllo, Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma, 1995 Much feminist wriIng (2nd or 3rd wave) took the form of essays, manifestos, public statements, lefers, historical wriIng. •  One of the most important literary legacies of feminism: expands the range of “literature.” •  Much of the best feminist wriIng: in genres that combine the essay, autobiography, narraIve, and poliIcal analysis.