EWRT 1C Class 10
Agenda
Literary Theory: The Extrinsic Lens
Feminist Criticism
Change Teams
Andrew Marvell “To His Coy Mistress”
Group Activity: Using Feminist Criticism
Intrinsic Theories
The intrinsically inclined literary theory isolates a work
of literature from its external reality. The supporters of
this classification see a text of literature as having no
relationship, either intended or implied, with the
external world. They assert that a work exists in its
own world. The critical theorists in this category are
the Formalists (The New Critics), Structuralists, and
Post-structuralists or the Deconstructionists.
Categorizing Literary
Theories
In his book, An Essay on Criticism (1966) Graham
Hough distinguishes two categories of literary
theories. The first category—the intrinsic theories—is
concerned with the moral nature of literature. Theories
in this category primarily emphasize the total essence
of literature. The second is what he describes as the
extrinsic theories, which talk about the formal nature
of literature and more specifically what it is.
The Extrinsic Theories
The extrinsically inspired literary theories tend to associate a literary piece with its external world. We see a departure from the isolationist philosophy of the intrinsic critics. Extrinsic criticism generally asserts that a work of literature is both a representation of the age and a reflection of the world in which it operates. Extrinsic theories value a text of literature as a product of the external world: the creator’s vision, imagination, and understanding. In this kind of criticism, the artist is said to be inside of the literary production, creating characters to carry out his mission. Some modern literary theories in this category are Psychoanalytical, Marxist, Feminist and Post-colonialist criticism.
Feminist criticism is concerned with “the ways in which
literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or
undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological
oppression of women" (Tyson). This school of theory looks at
how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal (male
dominated) and “this critique strives to expose the explicit and
implicit misogyny in males writing about women" (Richter
1346). This misogyny, Tyson reminds us, can extend into
diverse areas of our culture: "Perhaps the most chilling
example [...] is found in the world of modern medicine, where
drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been tested on
male subjects only" (83).
Feminist Theory and Criticism
The objectives of feminist criticism
include the following:
To uncover and develop a female tradition of writing
To interpret symbolism of women’s writing so that it will be
lost or ignored by the male point of view.
To rediscover old texts
To analyze women writers and their writing’s from a female
perspective
To increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and
style.
Feminist criticism has, in many ways,
followed what some theorists call the
three waves of feminism:
First Wave Feminism
Ran from late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull contribute to the women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920 with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment
Second Wave Feminism From early 1960s-late 1970s:
building on more equal working conditions necessary in America during World War II, movements such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, cohere feminist political activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, 1972) and Elaine Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement
Third Wave Feminism
From early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over generalized, over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle class focus of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories to expand on marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to “reconcile [feminism] with the concerns of the black community [and] the survival and wholeness of her people, men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform" (Tyson 97).
Assumptions of New Criticism
The boundaries between self and other, text and world are considered firm.
The critic is/should be a neutral observer.
The literary work is regarded as a self-enclosed universe with its own logic. It stands apart from the world but illuminates the world.
The literary work should be studied for its distinctively literary elements, and for how they operate in relation to each other in the world of the work. The work is valuable for its own sake, not for any extrinsicpurpose.
http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/271/FeministCriticism.htm
Assumptions of Feminist Criticism Women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, politically, socially,
and psychologically; patriarchal ideology is the primary means by which they are kept so
In every domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and values
All of western civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, for example, in the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the world
While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender (masculine or feminine)
All feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality
Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience, including the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/
Your First
Group!
Get into new
groups of three
or four. (1-2
minutes)
If you can’t find
a group, please
raise your hand.
Introduce
yourselves, and
write your
names down on
your point
sheet.
In Groups, Discuss
What is the primary focus of feminist criticism and theory?
How do feminist critics and theorists regard the role of women in literature?
Intersections of Feminist and New Criticism
QHQs
Feminist Theory
What is the primary focus of Feminist Criticism and theory?
How do feminist critics and theorists regard the role of women in literature?
What do you see as intersections of Feminist and New Criticism
QHQ Feminist Criticism
1. If we have been well aware of patriarchy and its negative affects on man and women in society, why are we not completely free of it and why do we still see it in our culture today?
2. Since we have never been able to completely get rid of patriarchy, should we just submit to it? Maybe patriarchy is rooted in out biological instincts and is something that will always be apart of us.
3. Does objectification originate from human nature or societal influence?
4. What role does language have in both patriarchy and feminism?
5. How does living in a patriarchal society make a woman “not a person in her own right”?
Questions Feminist Critics
Ask about Literary Text
1. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically,
politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? How are
women portrayed? How do these portrayals relate to the gender
issues of the period in which the novel was written or is set? In other
words, does the work reinforce or undermine patriarchal ideology?
(in the first case, we might say that the text has a patriarchal agenda.
In the second case, we might say that the text has a feminist agenda.
Texts that seem to both reinforce and undermine patriarchal
ideology might be said to be ideologically conflicted.
Andrew Marvell (1621-
1678
published a handful of poems in anthologies, a collection of Marvell's work did
not appear until 1681, three years after his death, when his nephew compiled
and found a publisher for Miscellaneous Poems. The circumstances
surrounding the publication of the volume aroused some suspicion: a person
named "Mary Marvell," who claimed to be Marvell's wife, wrote the preface to
the book. "Mary Marvell" was, in fact, Mary Palmer—Marvell's housekeeper—
who posed as Marvell's wife, apparently, in order to keep Marvell's small
estate from the creditors of his business partners. Her ruse, of course, merely
contributes to the mystery that surrounds the life of this great poet.
See more at http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/304
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), now considered one of the
greatest poets of the seventeenth century, published very
little of his scathing political satire and complex lyric verse
in his lifetime. Although Marvell
“To His Coy Mistress”
Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast;
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart;
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
In your groups, discuss Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and “‘To His Coy
Mistress’: A Feminist Reading”
Identify and discuss qualities of Feminist Criticism as it is applied in the essay about “To His Coy Mistress.”
Next, find specific examples from the essay, the poem, or the definition/description of Feminist Criticism that further support a feminist reading of the poem.
Feminist Reading
1. How are women being portrayed in “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell?
2. What does the work say about women?
3. What does the feminist reading of “To His Coy Mistress” reveal about the poem?
4. What does this poem suggest about the man’s behavior toward his mistress? What does this suggest about women’s role in this time period?
5. Does the poem reinforce or undermine gender roles?
1. Why does the poet feel the need to dehumanize the female
only to be seen as a sexual object and at the same time
remind the woman of how scarce her time of admiration is?
2. How would a feminist respond to the speaker of this poem?
Would [she] feel that it objectifies women?
3. What does the work tell us about patriarchy?
4. How does the poem reflect the patriarchal ideology?
5. Although this poem was created around the 15th or 16th
century, do we still face the same type of patriarchy today in
poetry?
6. Are the poems regarded as the traditional(historically
important to that country) those that encompass ideas of
patriarchy in some way shape or form? If so what does this
say about the particular society?
HOMEWORK Read: Lois Tyson: Chapter 2 “Psychoanalytic Criticism” pages 11-49
Reread: Bishop’s “The
Fish”
Read: Elizabeth Bishop’s
“The Fish”: A
Psychoanalytic Reading
(“Course Readings” and
“theory texts.” Bring copies
of both texts.
Post #9: What is the purpose of psychoanalytical criticism? OR QHQ on the Tyson reading