Feminist Criticism

Understanding Feminist Literary Criticism

Feminist literary criticism offers a vital perspective for analysing literature, approaching texts not as neutral objects but as reflections of societies shaped by gendered power structures. Emerging alongside broader feminist movements, particularly gaining academic prominence during the 'Second Wave' feminism of the 1960s-1980s, it fundamentally challenges historically dominant male-centred viewpoints. Unlike approaches focusing solely on textual form or authorial intent, feminist criticism interrogates how gender influences the creation, representation, and interpretation of literary works. It seeks to expose and critique the patriarchal biases often embedded in the literary canon and traditional interpretations.

Key figures and foundational texts, such as Kate Millett's Sexual Politics and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic, established core methodologies. These included analysing the portrayal of women (often finding them objectified or stereotyped), recovering neglected works by women writers (gynocriticism), and questioning the very standards by which literary value is assigned. Later waves, particularly the Third Wave from the 1990s onwards, introduced the crucial concept of intersectionality, emphasising that gender cannot be understood in isolation but must be analysed alongside race, class, sexuality, and nationality. This evolution highlights that feminist criticism is a dynamic field, constantly refining its approach to understanding how power operates through gender in literature.

At its core, feminist criticism rests on several key principles. Firstly, it analyses patriarchy – the system where men hold primary societal power – examining how literature reflects, reinforces, or resists this system. Secondly, it critiques socially constructed gender roles and stereotypes, exploring how texts portray or challenge expectations associated with masculinity and femininity. Thirdly, it identifies and critiques misogyny, from overt hostility towards women to subtle marginalisation. Finally, especially in contemporary forms, it insists on an intersectional analysis, recognising that experiences of gender are shaped by multiple overlapping identity factors.

Key Concepts

Several key concepts are central to understanding feminist literary criticism:

Patriarchy: Refers to the social system where men dominate. Feminist critics examine its manifestations within texts (e.g., power imbalances between characters, stereotypical roles, silencing of female voices) and in the context of production and reception (e.g., historical barriers for women writers, biased interpretations).
Gender as a Social Construct: Challenges the idea that gender is purely biological, instead seeing masculinity and femininity as sets of learned behaviours and expectations. Analysis focuses on how literature reflects, perpetuates, or subverts gender stereotypes (e.g., women as passive/emotional, men as active/rational).
The 'Male Gaze' (Mulvey): Originating in film theory, this concept describes representing the world, particularly women, from a default masculine, heterosexual perspective, positioning women as objects to be looked at rather than subjects with agency. It involves analysing objectification, narrative alignment with male perspectives, and the potential internalisation of this gaze by female characters.
Gynocriticism (Showalter): Shifts focus from how women are represented (often by men) to women as writers. It aims to recover works by neglected women authors, identify distinct female literary traditions, analyse themes and styles specific to women's writing, and develop a 'female framework' for analysis grounded in women's experiences.
Intersectionality: Emphasises that gender must be analysed in conjunction with other identity categories like race, class, sexuality, and nationality, as these factors combine to shape experiences of oppression and privilege. It resists analysing gender in isolation.
Écriture Féminine (Cixous, Kristeva): Primarily associated with French feminism, this theoretical concept explores a mode of writing aimed at articulating female experience and subjectivity by challenging patriarchal language structures (phallogocentrism). It often involves 'writing the body', employing fluidity, plurality, and challenging linear logic.

Applying Feminist Criticism to Nikkei Diaspora Literature

Applying feminist criticism to Nikkei diaspora literature requires an intensely intersectional approach, recognising that gendered experiences are inseparable from race, ethnicity, nationality, class, generational position (Issei, Nisei, Sansei etc.), and specific historical contexts like immigration and wartime incarceration. The emphasis is on understanding how these intersecting factors shape the lives and representations of Nikkei individuals, particularly women, within the texts.

Consider, for instance, Hisaye Yamamoto's short stories:

Intersectionality and Context: A feminist reading must consider how the experiences of her female characters are shaped not just by gender expectations within the Japanese American community (e.g., roles within the family, pressures on creativity) but also by the intense racism, discrimination, and historical trauma (like incarceration) imposed by the dominant American society. The analysis explores this 'double jeopardy'.
Patriarchy Across Cultures: Yamamoto's work allows for a critique of patriarchal structures originating from both traditional Japanese norms (e.g., male authority within the family, stifling of female expression in Seventeen Syllables) and the sexism encountered in broader American society. The analysis examines how these systems interact and how female characters navigate them.
Female Agency and Resistance: Feminist critics examine the ways female characters exhibit agency or resistance, even in constrained circumstances. This might involve acts of creative expression (like the mother's haiku), subtle defiance, or the negotiation of difficult choices. Yamamoto's characteristic narrative subtlety and silence can themselves be read as complex forms of resistance shaped by gender and racial context.
Critiquing Stereotypes: The analysis looks at how authors like Yamamoto challenge Orientalist or sexist stereotypes of Japanese/Asian women by presenting complex, nuanced characters who defy simplistic categorisation.

Throughout this analysis, a feminist critic acknowledges that the meaning and impact of Nikkei literature emerge from the interplay between the text's representations and the specific historical, cultural, and gendered contexts it engages with, paying close attention to how power operates along intersecting lines of identity.

Advantages and Limitations of Feminist Criticism

Feminist criticism offers significant advantages for analysing Nikkei diaspora literature. Its core strength lies in its ability to illuminate the crucial intersection of gender with race, history, and culture, providing tools to understand the specific, multi-layered experiences of Nikkei women often overlooked by other critical approaches. It foregrounds power dynamics, making visible the ways patriarchal structures operate both within the Nikkei community and in the broader host society. Its emphasis on recovering marginalised voices (gynocriticism) is vital for appreciating the contributions of Nikkei women writers who challenge dominant narratives and stereotypes. Furthermore, intersectionality provides a necessary framework for grasping the complexity of identity formation in a diasporic context.

However, feminist criticism also has potential limitations. Earlier forms sometimes risked essentialism by focusing too narrowly on a universal 'female experience', potentially overlooking differences related to race, class, or sexuality – a limitation largely addressed by intersectional approaches. There can be a risk, as with any critical lens, of imposing theoretical frameworks onto texts without sufficient sensitivity to the nuances of the specific work or its historical context. Overly focusing on oppression might sometimes overshadow explorations of agency, resilience, and joy within the texts. Finally, ensuring that the critique of internal community patriarchy does not inadvertently reinforce external racist stereotypes requires careful analytical balance. A nuanced application, particularly one embracing intersectionality, is crucial to harnessing the strengths of feminist criticism while mitigating these potential pitfalls.

Conclusion

Feminist literary criticism, particularly when employing an intersectional framework, provides an indispensable lens for analysing Nikkei diaspora literature. It moves beyond surface readings to explore the complex ways gender interacts with race, class, nationality, generation, and history to shape the experiences represented in these texts. By focusing on power dynamics, critiquing patriarchal structures (both internal and external), challenging stereotypes, and valuing female agency and perspectives, feminist criticism illuminates the unique struggles, resistances, and identities articulated by Nikkei writers, especially women.

It helps us understand how authors navigate historical traumas like internment, negotiate hybrid identities, and voice experiences often silenced in dominant historical accounts. From recovering the subtle artistry of early writers to appreciating the contemporary concerns of later generations, feminist analysis deepens our engagement with the richness and political significance of Nikkei literary production. While mindful of its potential limitations and the need for context-sensitive application, feminist criticism remains a vital tool for appreciating the power of these narratives and their ongoing contribution to understanding the complex interplay of identity, history, and social justice.

Originally published in French in 1949, The Second Sex is a foundational text for second-wave feminism and feminist theory. Beauvoir meticulously analyses the historical and societal structures that have relegated women to the status of 'Other' in relation to men. She famously argues that "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," distinguishing biological sex from the socially constructed concept of gender. While not solely literary criticism, its philosophical exploration of women's oppression, subjugation, and the construction of femininity provides essential theoretical underpinnings for much subsequent feminist literary analysis seeking to understand the portrayal and positioning of female characters and experiences in literature.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1990.

A highly influential text in third-wave feminism, queer theory, and post-structuralist thought, Gender Trouble challenges the stability of gender identity itself. Butler argues that gender is not an internal essence but is performative – constituted through repeated, stylised actions and behaviours regulated by societal norms. She critiques the sex/gender distinction central to earlier feminism and deconstructs the idea of a unified female subject. While complex and debated, Butler's theories on performativity, the critique of identity categories, and the instability of gender have significantly impacted feminist literary criticism, encouraging analyses that focus on how gender identities are constructed, subverted, or troubled within literary texts.

Cixous, Hélène. "The Laugh of the Medusa." Translated by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen, Signs, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976, pp. 875–93.

A seminal essay in French feminism, this work introduces the concept of écriture féminine (feminine writing). Cixous critiques phallogocentrism – the privileging of masculine language and logic – and urges women to "write her self," using writing as a means to reclaim their bodies and experiences from patriarchal suppression. She envisions a disruptive, embodied form of writing linked to the female libido, characterised by fluidity and plurality, capable of challenging established symbolic orders. This essay is key for understanding theoretical approaches within feminist criticism that focus on language, the body, and the potential for a distinctly female mode of expression to disrupt patriarchal structures in literature.

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale UP, 1979.

A landmark work of second-wave feminist criticism, specifically gynocriticism. Gilbert and Gubar analyse nineteenth-century British women writers (including Austen, the Brontës, Eliot, and Dickinson), arguing that they experienced an "anxiety of authorship" distinct from male writers, stemming from patriarchal constraints on female creativity. They contend that these authors often created subversive 'madwoman' characters (like Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre) as doubles for their own repressed anger and creative energies, embedding critiques of patriarchy within seemingly conventional narratives. The book was pivotal in establishing a female literary tradition and developing methods for reading women's writing for its hidden meanings and resistances.

hooks, bell. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981.

A foundational text in Black feminist thought and intersectionality. hooks critiques the historical exclusion of Black women's experiences from both the mainstream feminist movement (often dominated by white, middle-class concerns) and the anti-racist Civil Rights movement (often male-dominated). She analyses the intersecting oppressions of racism and sexism faced by Black women from slavery onwards, exposing how stereotypes and power structures uniquely impact them. For feminist literary criticism, this work underscores the necessity of an intersectional approach, demanding analyses that consider how race, class, and gender interact in shaping literary representations and the experiences of women of colour writers.

Millett, Kate. Sexual Politics. Doubleday, 1970.

A groundbreaking and controversial work of second-wave feminism that helped institutionalise feminist literary criticism. Millett analyses the works of male writers like D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer, alongside Sigmund Freud, to expose how literature reflects and perpetuates patriarchal ideology and misogyny. She argues that the relationship between the sexes is fundamentally political, based on power, and that patriarchy maintains its dominance through socialisation and institutions. Sexual Politics demonstrated a powerful method of critiquing male authors and cultural assumptions from an explicitly feminist political standpoint, significantly shaping the field's early focus on exposing sexism in the canon.

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, Autumn 1975, pp. 6–18.

Although originating in feminist film theory, Mulvey's concept of the 'male gaze' has been profoundly influential across the humanities, including literary criticism. Drawing on psychoanalysis, she argues that mainstream Hollywood cinema is structured around a masculine perspective, positioning women as passive objects of erotic contemplation for both the male characters within the film and the spectator. The essay analyses scopophilia (pleasure in looking) and narcissistic identification, arguing that the female figure often connotes castration anxiety, leading to her objectification or fetishisation. Literary critics frequently apply the 'male gaze' concept to analyse descriptive passages, narrative perspectives, and character dynamics where female subjectivity is denied and women are represented primarily as objects for male viewing.

Showalter, Elaine. "Towards a Feminist Poetics." Women Writing and Writing About Women, edited by Mary Jacobus, Croom Helm, 1979, pp. 22–41. (Also elaborated in A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing, Princeton UP, 1977).

In this influential essay (and her related book), Showalter distinguishes between two modes of feminist criticism: the 'feminist critique' (focused on woman as reader, analysing representations of women in literature, often by men) and 'gynocriticism' (focused on woman as writer). She advocates for gynocriticism as a project to construct a "female framework" for analysing women's literature, focusing on the history, themes, genres, and structures of writing by women, and recovering neglected female authors. Showalter also proposed phases of women's literary history (Feminine, Feminist, Female). This work was crucial in shifting focus towards studying women's own literary traditions and experiences.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. Hogarth Press, 1929.

An early and foundational text for feminist literary criticism, originating from lectures Woolf delivered in 1928. Woolf argues passionately that women need financial independence ("five hundred [pounds] a year") and private space ("a room of one's own") to be able to write fiction comparable to that produced by men. She explores the historical silencing of women's voices, the biases within the literary canon, the societal constraints limiting women's experiences (and thus their writing), and imagines a hypothetical sister of Shakespeare, Judith, thwarted by these limitations. Woolf's work elegantly articulates the material and social conditions necessary for women's creative production, laying essential groundwork for later feminist analyses of literature and its context.

Literary Criticism

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Feminist Criticism