フェミニスト文学批評をめぐる一考察
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概要
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Since its inception in the late 1960's, feminist literary criticism in America has developed various theories and approaches and produced a great amount of practical criticism. This essay is an attempt to survey its development by examining the four major theories and reviewing a selection of criticism,and to evaluate the achievements attained and to point out the problems yet to be resolved. "Feminist critique,"which was the predominant form of feminist literary criticism at its earliest stages, is primarily engaged in analyzing the stereotypical images of women in texts written by men and the phenomenon of the devaluation of female authors in literary criticism and literary history."Gynocritics,"in an effort to offset the negative images of women as analyzed by feminist critique,advocates the notion of "women's culture" and concerns itself with re-reading women's writing,to place each work in its social and cultural context and also to reconstruct the tradition of women's literature, centering around common themes,plots, and images. "Gynesis,"initiated by younger feminist critics who were influenced by French feminist criticism,is concerned with linguistic and epistemological aspects of literature and seems to combine postmodern theory with feminist ideology. The term "gynesis"means "woman-in-process,"that is a new process of reading and writing which tries to incorporate "otherness"and "marginality,"features associated with but not exclusive to women,into the traditional patriarchal linguistic system. In the meantime,"material feminist criticism,"with its historical awareness and ideological concerns,has tried to pay attention to particular historical and social aspects of women such as class and race, and it deals with a wide range of genres from serious literature to movies. The following achievements have been made by these various approaches advocated by feminist literary criticism:(1) rediscovery of women writers of the past and reconstruction of the history of women's literature,(2) revaluation of "the mother"and mother-daughter relationship,(3) posing alternative views to traditional literary standards and textual interpretations,(4)a degree of recognition and influence of feminist criticism in the mainstream literary criticism-some examples of attempts at feminist criticism on the part of male critics,and (5) contributions to the revision of literary history and canon. Finally as regards the problems yet to be dealt with:(1) a further look into the literary expressions of the complex relationships of class, race,and gender,(2)an attempt at a synthesis of various theories,and83) a search for an ideal relationship with the mainstream literary criticism.The ultimate problem of feminist literary criticism seems to be how to confront the antagonism on the part of some mainstream male critics and to bring about cooperative endeavors for revitalizing literary studies.
- 神戸女学院大学の論文