(Symploke review) Literature and the Development of Feminist Theory ed. by Robin Truth Goodman (review (original) (raw)
Related papers
Literature and the Development of Feminist Theory ed. by Robin Truth Goodman (review
symplokē 569 of tracking the errancy (another crucial term in Spanos' lexicon) a given text betrays. In the age of "surface" and "distant" reading, of the revival of "thin description," of the retreat into apolitical post-critical enumeration, A Spanos Reader reminds us that the task of the critic is to remain attentive to the secular imperative, that worldly and profane space of critique. It is to acknowledge, in Spanos' own words, "the full obligation to think the question of the human in an absolute sense: every single minute of one's waking life" (674). This, indeed, is criticism with teeth.
AN INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM: AT A BRIEF GLANCE
A type of literary criticism that became a dominant force in Western Literary studies in the late 1970 ‟ s, feminist theory more broadly conceived was applied to linguistic and literary matters. Since the early 1980 ‟ s, feminist literary criticism has developed and diversified in a number of ways and is now characterized by a global perspectives. It is nonetheless important to understand differences among the interests and assumptions of French, British and North America,(United States and Canada), feminist critics writing during the 1970 „ s, and early 1980 „ s, given the context to which their works shaped the evolution of contemporary feminist critical discourse.
Reading Feminist: Re-reading Orquídeas a la luz de la luna and La revolución
Inti Revista De Literatura Hispanica, 1994
Recently I had the good fortune to see the performance of Vicente Leñero's La noche de Hernán Cortés, a play that has caused a mixture of admiration and horror among theatregoers, but even more so the staging of it by Luis de Tavira, the enfant terrible of Mexican directors. 1 A dazzling postmodern spectacle in all senses, de Tavira's text, following its lead from Leñero's, is a rewriting of traditional historical and theatrical discourse. That is, until it comes to La Malinche, and here, neither playwright nor director seems able to overcome, to deconstruct or to restructure the patriarchal semiotic that weighs so heavily on her person. She remains forever "la chingada," as Cortés takes her from behind, and then casts her aside, in a brief but very vivid and disturbing scene. I note this as a way of entering one of the topics that concerns me herethat of resistance; resistance to the rewriting of discourse about women, and resistance as a feminist strategy for that very rewriting. But I want to emphasize not only writing, but also "reading"-the need to retrain the cultural "eye" to see, to take in texts from a critical perspective. In the case of the Leñero/de Tavira Malinche, for example, it was largely the women I spoke with who were bothered by her. Most of the men, however sensitive or sympathetic, seemed perplexed; and de Tavira himself has argued that he was only being "realistic," for La Malinche is still "la chingada" for most Mexicans. 2 And this in a performance that works very hard to thoroughly deconstruct all other Mexican cultural myths. To understand the importance of "seeing" differently, one has only to compare this Malinche, with Rosario Castellanos's in El eterno femenino or Sabina Berman's in Aguila o sol. 3 But in the theatre, seeing is also a product of encoding; that is, of what is
A History of Feminist Literary Criticism
Feminism has transformed the academic study of literature, fundamentally altering the canon of what is taught and setting new agendas for literary analysis. In this authoritative history of feminist literary criticism, leading scholars chart the development of the practice from the Middle Ages to the present. The first section of the book explores protofeminist thought from the Middle Ages onwards, and analyses the work of pioneers such as Wollstonecraft and Woolf. The second section examines the rise of second-wave feminism and maps its interventions across the twentieth century. A final section examines the impact of postmodernism on feminist thought and practice. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the history and development of feminist literary criticism and a lively reassessment of the main issues and authors in the field. It is essential reading for all students and scholars of feminist writing and literary criticism.
Women's Studies International Quarterly, 1978
Synopsis--This is a taped transcript of a talk given from notes. I have edited lightly. I wanted to preserve the informality and the bravado. The detail of my present research concerns itself with what I propose here in tentative and broad outline.