When writing literary criticism one must ponder upon the significance of the topic to the literary canon as a whole. While there may not be a single definitive answer to how significant a topic is, one can question if the topic has been neglected or rejected by Western literary circles. If the answer is “yes,” then it is the critics’ duty to refashion the spotlight on the text. It was not until the 1970’s where feminism influenced the revival of texts authored by women. Historically conditioned suppositions of male superiority has allowed the sex to dominate certain genres of literature, moreover men are given recognition for ideas that are thought of as revolutionary and original where, in fact, silenced female authors have reflected upon, and even perfected those thoughts. Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes in Introduction to Writing…
American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.…
Female emancipation and the struggle for women of existing within a predominately patriarchal society is a prevalent topic in literature. Female heroines are portrayed variably across all eras and genres of literature and yet the use of a melancholic and isolated female protagonist is arguably inescapable as writers continually refer back to a critical portrayal of women in their work. From Chaucer’s presentment of the Wife of Bath as an old hag to John Donne’s plea in his poem ‘Loves Alchemy’ that one should “Hope not for mind in women”1; or one of Shakespeare’s female protagonists, Ophelia driven mad arguably due to her unrequited love for Hamlet. There is a tendency in literature, with particular reference to Shakespeare’s…
“According to Cheryl Torsney, feminist criticism is not a single method, but rather a patchwork or “a quilt” of different methods stitched together with common conviction.” (Lynn 235). Feminist criticism was developed in the late 1960’s and its main focus is women in literature. There are two major concerns when dealing with feminist criticism how women are written and how women have been written. (Lynn 235). Michael Meyer defines feminist criticism as “An approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman’s point of view and to explain women’s writing strategies as specific to their social conditions.(Meyer). I will be applying feminist criticism to the movie Revolutionary Road.…
According to facts , William J. Clinton 'Appendix A ' made the strongest argument to promote racial equality. Racial equality means for black people to be looked as equal to white people. Many great speeches have been made such as Martin Luther King Jr's " I Have A Dream " and Barak Obama's " Remarks..." , both addressing the same issues as Clinton's. In my opinion , Clinton's was the strongest.…
In “The Darke and Vicious Place”: The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear, Peter L. Rudytsky analyses what some argue is Shakespeare’s most important tragic play, “King Lear.” Rudytsky looks at the play through a feminist psychoanalytic lens to explore the misogyny behind some of the play’s key players as well as the play as a whole. That Lear is misogynist in nature (both the play and the lead character, King Lear himself) is not a new notion, as Rudytsky points out. Many before him have searched for and found hidden anti-feminist sentiments in the work. This, he also states, is partially because, “Shakespeare’s plays are written from a male perspective and depict predominantly conflicts of masculine identity” (292). From a psychoanalytical standpoint, these “perspectives” and “depictions” could be interpreted as Shakespeare’s own struggle with his masculine identity on the subconscious plane coming forth in his writing. Or, they could simply be because he was a man writing about men in what, at the time, was predominantly a man’s world. As a man, it would have been a great challenge for Shakespeare to write successfully from a female perspective on his chosen subject matter, especially at the time in which he was prominent when there was little understanding or consideration of women.…
Shakespeare's plays are one of the most successful literatures of all time. His plays addressed many important issues in the world. Othello is a play that successfully brings together critical themes of love, appearances, racism and jealousy and most importantly role of women in the Elizabethan era. Through the exploration of the role of women in Othello and plays written by Shakespeare, this essay will argue that literature is most successful when dealing with a global issues like gender role.…
Feminist are troubled with literature under representing women. In the early 20th century, women were seen as inferior to men in society, and feminist want to step out and…
In the most common and simple terms, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s (in the first and second waves of feminism) was concerned with the politics of women's authorship and…
The alcohol prohibition in 1920 was a government effort to stop the manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of alcohol. To say the least, the prohibition only made matters worse causing the consumption of alcohol to increase significantly. The addictive properties of alcohol forced citizens into find alternate and dangerous routes to getting their fix. After the defeat of prohibition, one would believe the government would learn from their mistakes. However, the 1950’s proved differently when the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, declared the unprecedented campaign, the war on drugs.…
Broadly defined, feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women. We live in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is defined as…
Overall, feminist critics search for faux pas in texts that portray the male perspective as the literary model while that of the females as a discrepancy. In addition, they question social interactions between characters that position females as…
Thomas Mann, in his speech “Germany and the Germans”, talks about “German world-seclusiveness and melancholy world-unfitness” as a particular German state of mind. He says that Germany and Germans are complex because their character is so puzzling because as he traveled around the world he realized that the original nature of the German is his seclusiveness and timidity to face the world around him. Thomas Mann believes that “ In the seclusiveness of there was always so much longing for companionship: indeed at the bottom of the very loneliness that made him wicked lay always the wish to love, the wish to be loved.” (Mann, 319) This means that although the German is lonely and doesn’t fit with the world, he longs for the wish…
The text holds valid forms of characteristics of feminist literature such as an attempt in change of gender norms, a protagonist female lead character, and a…
For most women shoes are probably the most important part of the whole outfit. The shoes you wear can increase your confidence or destroy it, and you can never have enough. Companies capitalize on this idea by mostly targeting women when they are marketing their shoe products. The market for fashion forward men is growing rapidly, thus more stores are providing a lot more variety of men’s shoes as well. The shoe market is divided into three major product categories athletic shoes, casual and dress shoes, and then “boom-or-bust” novelty designs. The shoe industry is one of the more “mature” industries, meaning that it has passed the emerging and growth stages and the sales are slower and more constant. The average woman owns 17 pairs of shoes. Women make up 25% out of the 40% casual/dress shoes segment, while the remaining 15% of it belongs to men. In order for a company, to retain its old customers and attract new customers, they must continually offer better and bolder shoes. The taste of shoe buyers changes often, and so the retailers must improve their shoes. The improvements in an athletic shoe would focus on comfort and performance enhancement. The dress and casual shoes would rely on the fashion-forwardness and the superior products and novelty designs focus on improving profitability. The whole shoe industry has to be able to adapt to change and with the electronic era here. The biggest change the industry probably has to make is moving to an e-business adjusting a company’s sales to stay the same and even increase, while keeping up with the technology and trends at the same time. That could mean expanding internet sales and closing down low performing stores or just marketing their online segments harder.…