Feminist Criticism
 The emotional,
sexual, and
psychological
stereotyping of
females begins when
the doctor says, "It's a
girl." ~Shirley
Chisholm
Feminist Criticism
 A type of literary criticism that critiques how
females are commonly represented in texts,
and how insufficient these representations
are as a categorizing device. They focus on
how femininity is represented as being
passive and emotional – the “caregiver,”
and the male is associated with reason and
action – the “doer.”
Feminist Criticism
 As an addition to the feminist
movement in politics, the
feminist critique of literature
seeks to raise the
consciousness about the
importance and unique
nature of women in literature,
and to point out how
language has been used to
marginalize women.
Feminist Criticism
Specifically, the feminist view attempts to:
1. Show that writers of traditional literature
have ignored women and have presented
misguided and prejudiced views of them
2. Create a critical landscape that reflects a
balanced view of the nature and value of
women
Feminist Criticism
3. Expand the literary canon by recovering
works of women of the past and
publication of contemporary female
writers
4. Urge transformation in the language to
eliminate inequities and inequalities that
result from linguistic distortions such as
mankind (rather than humanity).
Feminist Critical Questions
1. To what extent does the representation of
women (and men) in the work reflect the
time and place in which the work was
written?
2. How are the relationships between men
and women presented in the work?
3. Does the author present the work from
within a predominantly male or female
perspective?
Feminist Critical Questions
4.How do the facts of the author’s life relate
to the presentation of men and women in
the work?
5. How do other works by the author
correspond to this one in their depiction of
the power relationships between men and
women?