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