Feminist criticism in the wilderness

Feminist criticism in the wildernessElaine Showalter women have no wilderness in them. They are provident instead. Content in the tight hot cell of their heart to eat dusty bread.

Louise Bogan.Elaine Showalter

Elaine Showalter is one of the most powerful contemporary feminist writers and critics. She started by an ideological position that literary criticism produce even during the peak of feminist movement has been inadequate and lacking focus and direction.

GynocriticismShowalters gyno criticism is based on the assumption that the production, consumption and assessment of a literary product has to shift its focus form the patriarchal hierarchy to a matri-lineal system.Elaine Showalter differentiates between two modes of feminist criticismThe first mode is necessarily ideological which deals with woman as a reader, attempting to read literary text and focusing on the stereotype, misconception and certain omission. This mode of criticism tend to intellectualize, ignore the life experiences of women as they live in society and in language.Woman as writerThe second mode of feminist literary criticism is an attempt to read women as a writer and the subjects of this criticism are history, style, theme genres and structures which she also told to constitute the psycho dynamic of womens writings.Modes of literary criticismsShowalter talks about four factors of women criticism. These factors have been debated over a long period of time.Factors of feminist criticism1- Womens writing and womans bodyMost feminist critics have seriously debated the issue that culture is owned and defined by the patriarchal hierarchy. There are serious of essays and books written on this issue by feminists who make an argument that womens body have been the object of writing and not the subject.Elaine showlater is concerned with the traditional and inherent prejudice that inferior females body produces an inferior body of literature.In a sense, writing too was judged on the basis of biology. Showalter is basically objecting to the inherent binarism in the dominant critical practices.The biological criticism is obviously grounded on the idea of the superior male; the patriarchal notions of the biological polarity have seriously harmed not only the writing about women, but womens writing as whole. Showalter believes that in order to live a fully human life, women must recognize the resistance of their physically as a united whole , then only the body of womens writing could be properly appreciated.2- Womens writing and womens language.Showalter seriously questions that language has always been rooted in the gender polarity and the language that women use, is a language of emotions, of impulse, lacking in decorum, authority and reason. The argument therefore naturally leads to the conclusion that if women have weak language, they will produce weak literature.It is possible therefore to create altogether new language a feminist language or what Showalter calls a gynocritical language. Showalter does not suggest that women can create altogether new language, like most contemporary feminist. Showalter too makes a case for reclaiming the recourses of womens language, language rooted in mothering, characterized by care, nurture, selfless love and nutrition as against control, domination, discipline and rigidity.Showalters gynocritical idea of language is shared by a large number of feminists who believe that women must reclaim the resources of their language and thereby, their self-respect as humans beings is possible only by realizing their power as mothers.3-Womens writing and woman psycheShowalter argues that the difference between men and women is also used to assess the creative process. It uses the linguistic and biological models of genders to define the female psyche. It was the assumption in Freudian psychoanalysis that women have few writing blocks compared with the writing factors like the ink, the pen, the paper, etc.Moreover, the Freudian idea that women suffer from castrations complex also seriously effects writing by women. A deep rooted psychoanalytical prejudice that women suffer from inadequacy. They are not complete because they are not men has created serious limitations in criticism about womens writing.4- Womens writing and woman cultureThe last model of Showalters thesis of gynocriticism is the location of womens writing in culture.Women have always thought about their roles in society, history, and culture in male-centric terms. Which obviously is a limitation of womens writing.Women have never attempted to reclaim their roles in family, history and culture.Showlater makes out a case that women must seriously investigate into the matri-lineal resources of culture both as an individuals and as member in a group. In the dominant history, women voices and womens cultural productions have been silenced and muted.The matri-lineal resources of culture have a very wide field of inference such as their emotions, their relationships with nature, ecology domestic economy or the recycling of human resources, which need to be brought into the main stream of womens writings.Thank you for watching.Good luck.