Author: Sushila Singh
Publisher: Pencraft International
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 188
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185753172
Description
This book is organized around three approaches towards understanding feminism-theoretical tenets, literary criticism, and applications. Beginning with an account of the nature of feminist ideology, the book proceeds to examine the complexities of feminist thought and the major concerns of feminist theory. This brings into close focus the issues of the otherness and marginality of woman, the essentialist/constructionist binarism in feminist theory, the relational and individualistic aspects of feminist thought, and the spurt in feminist thought and theory in the wake of poststructuralist theories. The critique ultimately centers on the question-is woman born or made?
Feminist literary criticism, as outlined in the book, has developed as a component of the women’s movement and its impact ha brought about a revolution in literary studies. It has opened up altogether new perspectives and provided refreshing and insightful strategies in reading and responding to literary texts. This study offers an analysis of the selected works of Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble form this perspective. The newly emerging dimensions of feminism have also been discussed in the context of the politics of post-colonial culture.
Contents
PREFACE
Feminism: The Movement and the Ideology
Recent Trends in Feminist Thought: A Tour de Horizon
Utopian Element in Feminist Thought
Essentialist / Constructionist Binarism in Feminist Literary Theory
Feminist Literary Criticism: Breaking the Silence
Outlining Feminist Literary Criticism: Woman as Reader/Writer Perspective
Woman and Academe in America (1860-1900): A Historical Perspective
From the relational to the Individualistic: Woman thought in Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Frontier in American history and the Concept of Masculinity
Women in Norman Mailer’s Novels
Margaret Drabble in quest for the Middle Ground
Joyce Carol Oates: The Woman Question in her Exploration of the Contemporary Human Condition
Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood: Two Faces of the New World Feminism
Woman of the American West: Cultural Pluralism and the Question of Identity
Multiplying Identities: Theorizing Difference
Works Cited
Index