Feminist Theory and Literary Practice , livre ebook

264

pages

English

Ebooks

2000

Écrit par
Deborah L. Madsen

Publié par
Pluto Press

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264

pages

English

Ebooks

2000

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Pluto Press

Date de parution

20 août 2000

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9781849645263

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

This book is an exploration of women's writing that focuses on the close links between literary texts and the theories that construct those texts as 'women's writing'. Each chapter deals with one of the issues or concepts that have engaged both authors and theorists - rhetoric, work, consciousness, nature, class and race. A detailed analysis shows how each concept has been used by feminists to construct a specific text in such a way that it is received as a work of 'women's writing', particularly in American literature.

Using canonical texts, from Charlotte Perkins Gilman through Kate Chopin and Willa Cather to Alice Walker and Ann Beattie, Madsen engages with the major debates within feminist studies. Moving on from Showalter's groundbreaking work to broaden the trajectory of feminist concern, this book is an accessible account of the varieties of feminist thought within the context of the key American texts.
Preface

Introduction: Feminism in America

1. Gender and Rhetoric: Liberal Feminism and Mary Rowlandson

2. Gender and Work: Marxist Feminism and Charlotte Perkins Gilman

3. Gender and Consciousness: Psychoanalytic Feminism and Kate Chopin

4. Gender and Nature: Ecofeminism and Willa Cather

5. Gender and Sexuality: Radical Feminism and Adrienne Rich

6. Gender and Class: Socialist Feminism and Ann Beattie

7. Gender and Race: Feminism of Colour and Alice Walker, Denise Chávez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maxine Hong Kingston

Bibliography

Index

Voir

Publié par

Pluto Press

Date de parution

20 août 2000

EAN13

9781849645263

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Feminist Theory and Literary Practice

Deborah L. Madsen

P Pluto Press LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA

First published 2000 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA

www.plutobooks.com

The right of Deborah L. Madsen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 7453 1602 6 hardback ISBN 0 7453 1601 8 paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Production Services Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed in the European Union by TJ International, Padstow

For my girls, Selene, Dana and Aurora

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Feminism in America

1 Gender and Rhetoric: Liberal Feminism and Mary Rowlandson

Survey of Liberal Feminist Theory: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Betty Friedan

Liberal Feminism in Praxis: Mary Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

References and Selected Further Reading

47 62

2 Gender and Work: Marxist Feminism and Charlotte Perkins Gilman65 Survey of Marxist Feminist Theory: Emma Goldman, Michèle Barrett, Lillian Robinson 65 Marxist Feminism in Praxis: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’sThe Yellow Wallpaperand Selected Stories 76 References and Selected Further Reading 92

3 Gender and Consciousness: Psychoanalytic Feminism and Kate Chopin

Survey of Psychoanalytic Feminist Theory: Carol Gilligan, Jane Flax, Jane Gallop

Psychoanalytic Feminism in Praxis: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

References and Selected Further Reading

vii

108 119

viii

Feminist Theory and Literary Practice

Gender and Nature: Eco-feminism and Willa Cather Survey of Eco-feminist Theory: Carol Adams, Carol Bigwood, Carolyn Merchant Eco-feminism in Praxis: Willa Cather’s Plains Fiction References and Selected Further Reading

122

135 148

Gender and Sexuality: Radical Feminism and Adrienne Rich152 Survey of Radical Feminist Theory: Shulamith Firestone, Andrea Dworkin, Mary Daly, Audre Lorde 152 Radical Feminism in Praxis: Adrienne Rich’s Poetry 170 References and Selected Further Reading 180

Gender and Class: Socialist Feminism and Ann Beattie Survey of Socialist Feminist Theory: Juliet Mitchell, Sheila Rowbotham, Zillah Eisenstein Socialist Feminism in Praxis: Ann Beattie’sSecrets and Surprises References and Selected Further Reading

Gender and Race: Feminism of Colour and Alice Walker, Denise Chávez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maxine Hong Kingston

Survey of Feminism of Colour: Gloria Anzaldúa, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Paula Gunn Allen Third-World Feminism in Praxis: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Denise Chávez’sThe Last of the Menu Girls, Leslie Marmon Silko’sStoryteller, Maxine Hong Kingston’sThe Woman Warrior References and Selected Further Reading

Index

184

196 210

213

214

220 239

247

Preface

Women’s writing and feminism have always been closely related because ‘women’s writing’ is a critical category – a product of discourse about the texts women have written – and not the intention of the writers themselves. Women’s writing is a critical, not an authorial, category. There are some exceptions (an increasing number) in the late twentieth century, but it is safe to say that not all female writers are feminist and this is especially true of pre-nineteenth century writers. Feminist theory therefore defines the object of study (women’s writing) but the relationship between the two goes deeper than this. Many texts by women express the same concerns as feminist theory: the unique experience of women in history; the notion of female consciousness; the definitions of gender that limit and oppress; and the cause of women’s liberation from those restrictions. In the chapters that follow, I offer a survey of the diversity of feminist theories together with a selected history of American women’s writing: my aim is to show how the issues of feminism have been engaged by women writers – reflected, supported, challenged – throughout America’s history. The book then offers an exploration of American women’s writing that focuses upon the synergism that exists between literary texts and the feminist theories that construct those texts as ‘women’s writing’. Each chapter deals with one of the issues or concepts that have engaged both authors and theorists – Rhetoric, Work, Consciousness, Sexuality, Nature, Class, and Race – offering an analysis of how that concept has been used by feminists to theorise the feminine condition. This analysis is then applied to the reading of key American women’s literary texts in order to highlight the conceptual synergism that exists between feminist theory and literary praxis. The book introduces, explains and applies each of the major trends or movements within contemporary feminist ix

Feminist Theory and Literary Practice

theory: Liberal, Marxist, Psychoanalytic, Radical, Socialist, Third-World and Eco-feminism, providing an accessible account of the varieties of American feminist thought within the context of readings of key American women’s texts. In anthologies and introductory monographs, feminist literary theory is frequently explained in terms of how theorists deal with the concepts of ‘Woman’ or ‘the Feminine’. But readers just as often encounter feminism as a bewildering diversity of theoretical practices, distinguished each from the other only as ‘isms’. Consequently, many popular introductions to feminism do not do much to clarify the confusion experienced when readers attempt to relate particular schools of feminist thought to the diverse political agenda of feminism. My intention is to describe as clearly and succinctly as possible the main principles, practitioners, and analytic methods of the seven most influential approaches to contemporary feminism. Each theoretical model is exemplified in its application to literary study. Each chapter opens with an analytical survey of theorists working within a particular field of feminist theory. This theory is then exemplified by the practical application of the style of feminist analysis that follows. In each chapter I have selected well-known texts that occupy a canonical place within the American women’s literary tradition as the subject for inter-pretation and discussion. Thus, the book offers an account of American women’s literary history, from the colonial period to the present, while at the same time introducing the most influential of contemporary feminist theoretical practices. These literary texts have been chosen with care, to include both well-established texts such as Kate Chopin’sThe Awakeningand newly-canonised texts like the writings of Maxine Hong Kingston and Leslie Marmon Silko. As these last few names indicate, I have attempted to represent the diversity of the American women’s literary tradition as it is read and studied today. Women of colour are represented extensively both as writers of theory and of literature. It should be noted that not only is the erosion of traditional distinctions between these types of discourse exemplified by

Preface

the writers themselves who are discussed in this book but the breakdown of the clearly defined categories of ‘theory’ versus ‘literature’ emerges as the dominant theme. In the chapter devoted to radical feminist theories, for example, the key writers highlighted here – Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde – are quite rightly as famous for their incisive contribution to contemporary theoretical debate as for their imaginative work in the fields of poetry and prose. In this case, a close synergism exists between theory and literary practice, where the theorists are also the literary practitioners. In other chapters, however, I have deliberately chosen to discuss literary works that seem indifferent or even hostile towards the feminist approach I have adopted. For example, I use a Marxist feminist approach to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’sThe Yellow Wallpaper, a text that is most frequently discussed in terms of psychological theoretical paradigms. Similarly, I use the principles of Socialist feminism to approach Ann Beattie’s short stories, texts that have been criticised for bearing little obvious relation to political and social realities. Perhaps most hostile to contemporary feminist approaches are texts written in a predominantly ‘pre-feminist’ era, such as the colonial American seventeenth century. I have chosen to open my discussions here with the analysis of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative in order to do two things. First, these writers in some ways signify the beginnings of women’s writing in America, and so it is appropriate to start a book which claims to cover the chronological breadth of American women’s writing with a consideration of their work. Secondly, these texts – like the others I have named above – demonstrate the ways in which literary texts that appear to be removed from specific feminist principles do in fact respond powerfully to analysis when approached in terms of contemporary feminist concerns. These texts maybe more than others show how the issues of feminism have been engaged, reflected, supported and challenged by women writers throughout America’s history. The structure of the book follows a broadly chronological pattern, beginning with a chapter on writers of the colonial period; this is followed by two chapters on nineteenth-

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century women’s writing, three chapters on twentieth-century women’s writing, and a concluding chapter devoted to contemporary American ethnic women’s writing. In addition to including women of colour with white writers, I have opted to conclude with a chapter that considers ethnic women’s writing on its own terms, in order to give full con-sideration to what I consider to be the most powerful challenge to contemporary feminist theoretical models. The vocabulary I have used deliberately avoids complex theoretical terminology but, to avoid the twin dangers of misrepresentation and oversimplification, I do use the terms deployed by the theorists I discuss. Some of the key terms that recur throughout the discussion here are: ‘gender’, as opposed to ‘sex’, which refers to the socio-cultural character-istics attributed to the different biological sexes; ‘misogyny’, which refers to the systematic practice of woman-hating and usually describes the institutionalised subordination of women and all that is designated ‘feminine’. Anti-feminine practices found in misogynistic cultures include: foot-binding, genital mutilation, female slavery, female infanticide, concubinage, forced marriage and child marriage. ‘Patriarchy’ is another recurrent term, referring to government by men (viz. ‘the Father’); patriarchy is a cultural (ideological) system that privileges men and all things masculine, and a political system that places power in the hands of men and thus serves male interests at the expense of women. These are terms that are common currency in feminist theoretical and literary debates and yet they are worth rehearsing here, if only for the sake of clarity. Clarity is what I have sought throughout this book – clarity of structure and terminology, but I have also sought to clarify the relations that characterise the intellectual fields of contemporary feminist theory and American women’s writing. These are fields marked by a diversity that gives rise to bitter controversy as well as immense vitality and dynamism. It is a pressing issue at this time, to negotiate the diversification of feminism into various movements and interest groups that are organised around specific issues (such as class or race or ecology), and to negotiate this diversity in such a way as to

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