Feminist theory

Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical discourse, it aims to understand the nature of gender inequality.

It examines women's social roles and lived experience, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, psychoanalysis, economics, literary criticism, education, and philosophy.

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. 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 male writing about women.

Feminist theories have emerged as early as 1792 (– 1920s) in such publications as “The Changing Woman”,“Ain’t I a Woman”, “Speech after Arrest for Illegal Voting”,and so on.This books addressed the issues surrounding limited rights to women based on the flawed perceptions that men held of women

While generally providing a critique of social relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues.

Themes explored in feminism include art history and (especially sexual objectification), oppression, and patriarchy.

-The objectives of the criticism are:1. To uncover and develop a female

tradition of writing2. to interpret symbolism of women’s

writing so that it will be lost or ignored by the male point of view.

3. rediscover old texts4. analyze women writers and their

writing’s from a female perspective 5. to evade sexism in literature6. to increase awareness of the sexual

politics of language and style.

Common Space in

Feminist Theories

Though a number of

different approaches

exist in feminist

criticism, there exist

some areas of

commonality.

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 feminist activity, including feminist theory and literary criticism, has as its ultimate goal to change the world by prompting gender equality