Fem

History of Feminist Literary Criticism

  • First Wave Feminism (1700-1900)

    Writers highlight the inequalities between men and women
  • "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters"

    "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters"
    offers advice on female education to British middle class
  • "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"

    "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"
    -Written by Mary Wollstonecraft
    -Of how women must be treated equally because they plan important part in society
  • Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894)

    Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-1894)
    Women's rights advocate used to write women's rights articles in her husband's newspaper until she went on to start her own newspaper (The Lily) that focused on women's rights.
  • Lucy Stone (1818-1893)

    Lucy Stone (1818-1893)
    -Her decision to keep her maiden name after marriage, which was quite controversial at the time
    -helped to organize the 1st National Women's Rights convention in 1850
    -Founded the Women's Journal (1870), a publication supporting women's rights
  • Feminine Phase (1840-1880)

    Women writers imitated prevalent male creative norms and standards for appearance
  • Feminist Phase (1880-1920)

  • Alice Paul (1885-1977)

    Alice Paul (1885-1977)
    American women rights activist that helped to establish the congressional union for women's suffrage (1913)
  • Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)

    Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)
    Wrote "The Second Sex" as well as feminist pieces and campaigned against discrimination against women and unwed mothers
  • Passing of the 19th Amendment

    (Amended on Aug 18, 1920) In response to the Women's Suffrage Movement.
  • Female Phase (1920-onwards)

    primarily focuses on female writing and experiences
  • "A Room of One's Own"

    "A Room of One's Own"
    -Written by Virginia Woolf
    -Explored gender relations and argued that patriarchal education systems created a boundary for women.
  • "The Second Sex"

    "The Second Sex"
    -Written by Simone De Beauvoir
    -One of the earliest attempts to challenge our history from a feminist perspective. It covers the thesis that man basically oppress women by characterizing them as "other" rather than equal.
  • Second Wave Feminism (about 1960-1970)

  • Kate Chopin

    Kate Chopin
    Kate Chopin's buried feminist literature was reprinted after being rediscovered.
  • "Feminine Mystique"

    "Feminine Mystique"
    believed to have revived the women's rights movement
  • Gynocriticism

    Elaine Showalter coined the term "gynocriticism" in her essay "Towards a Feminist Poetics"
  • "Women Writers & Poetic Identity"

    "Women Writers & Poetic Identity"
    -Written by Margaret Homan
    -Looks into why there were so few great women poets in a time when most of the great novelists then were women.
  • Third Wave Feminism (About 1990-today)

  • "Becoming the Third Wave"

    "Becoming the Third Wave"
    American feminist, Rebecca Walker, published in Ms Magazine
  • "To Be Real: Telling the Truth & Changing the Face of Feminism"

    "To Be Real: Telling the Truth & Changing the Face of Feminism"
    Written by Rebecca Walker
  • References

    References
    A History of Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Gill Plain, and Susan Sellers, Cambridge University
    Press, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=325999 Nasrullah Mambrol. “Third Wave Feminism.” Literary Theory and Criticism, 21 Mar. 2019, https://literariness.org/2017/10/29/third-wave-feminism/ “Equal Rights Amendment.” National Archives, 28 Feb. 2019, www.archives.gov/women/era.