Foundations of Feminist Literary Criticism

Feminist literary criticism examines how texts represent gender, how they reinforce or challenge patriarchal ideology, and how women's experiences have been marginalised, silenced, or distorted in literary traditions. It emerged from broader feminist movements and draws on thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir ("One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman"), Virginia Woolf, Kate Millett, and Judith Butler.

A feminist reading does not simply "look for sexism" in a text. It examines the structures of power that shape how characters are constructed, how narrative voice distributes authority, and how textual form itself may reproduce or subvert gendered assumptions. This includes analysing the male gaze (Laura Mulvey), the angel/monster dichotomy (Gilbert and Gubar), and the politics of narrative authority.

First Wave Concerns

●Women's access to education and the literary canon
●Recovering forgotten women writers
●Challenging stereotypical representations

Contemporary Concerns

●Intersectionality: race, class, sexuality, and gender
●Gender as socially constructed performance (Butler)
●Challenging the gender binary itself

The Male Gaze and Narrative Authority

Laura Mulvey's concept of the male gaze, originally applied to cinema, is widely used in literary analysis. It describes how texts position the viewer/reader to look at women from a heterosexual male perspective, reducing women to objects of visual pleasure. In literature, the male gaze operates through focalisation — whose eyes we see through — and through the language used to describe female characters.

Consider how a text distributes narrative authority. Who narrates? Whose interior thoughts do we access? In many canonical texts, male characters serve as narrators and focalising agents, while female characters are described from the outside — their bodies detailed, their thoughts inaccessible. A feminist reading pays attention to this asymmetry and its ideological implications.

Textual Markers of the Male Gaze

1

Female characters described primarily through physical appearance while male characters are described through actions or thoughts.

2

Women positioned as objects of verbs (acted upon) rather than subjects (acting): "she was watched," "she was desired."

3

Fragmentation of the female body into parts (eyes, lips, hair) rather than presenting women as whole, complex subjects.

4

Women's value linked to their relationships with men (wife, daughter, mother) rather than their autonomous identity.

Texts That Subvert Gender Expectations

Many texts studied in the HSC deliberately challenge patriarchal norms. A feminist reading should also identify moments of resistance, subversion, and reclamation. This includes texts that grant women narrative authority, that expose the constructed nature of gender roles, or that depict female characters who defy the expectations imposed upon them.

When a female composer writes from a woman's perspective, consider how this reclaims narrative space. When a text satirises or ironically deploys gender stereotypes, consider how humour functions as critique. The analytical skill lies in identifying how the text achieves its subversion — through language, form, structure, or intertextual reference.

Strategies of Subversion

✓Granting female characters narrative voice and interiority
✓Reversing the gaze: women observing and judging men
✓Exposing gender roles as performances rather than natural states
✓Rewriting canonical stories from female perspectives
✓Using irony or satire to critique patriarchal assumptions

Key Vocabulary

Male Gaze

The perspective of a heterosexual male viewer/reader through which women are presented as objects of visual pleasure, reducing their agency and subjectivity.

Intersectionality

A framework recognising that gender oppression intersects with race, class, sexuality, and disability, creating distinct experiences for different women.

Performativity

Judith Butler's concept that gender is not a fixed identity but a set of repeated performances that create the illusion of a stable, natural gender identity.

Angel/Monster Dichotomy

Gilbert and Gubar's observation that women in literature are often reduced to two types: the passive, pure "angel" or the dangerous, transgressive "monster."

Worked Examples

Example 1: The Male Gaze in The Great Gatsby

Analysis: Fitzgerald constructs Daisy Buchanan through Nick's focalisation, reducing her to a collection of sensory fragments: her "low, thrilling voice," her "bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth." The synaesthetic quality of these descriptions aestheticises Daisy, positioning her as an object of contemplation rather than a subject with depth. Her famous line — "I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" — is simultaneously ironic self-awareness and a devastating indictment of a patriarchal society that rewards women only for decorative passivity.

Example 2: Subversion in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Analysis: Atwood's dystopia makes the patriarchal control of women's bodies grotesquely literal. Offred's narration is an act of resistance — by telling her story, she reclaims the subjectivity that Gilead seeks to erase. The fragmented, non-linear structure mirrors Offred's psychological state under oppression, demonstrating how form itself can embody feminist critique. The "Historical Notes" epilogue further subverts expectations by showing male academics trivialising Offred's testimony, thus extending the critique of patriarchal authority into the very act of reading.

Example 3: Gender Performance in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Analysis: Viola's disguise as Cesario destabilises the gender binary by demonstrating that masculinity is a set of performed behaviours rather than a natural essence. The play's romantic confusions — Olivia falls for Cesario, Orsino is drawn to Viola-as-Cesario — expose the instability of heteronormative desire. Read through Butler's theory of gender performativity, the play suggests that all gender identity is a kind of masquerade, undermining the notion that gender is fixed or innate.

Knowledge Check

Test your understanding of feminist reading practices. Select the correct answer and click "Check Answer".

Question 1

Laura Mulvey's concept of the "male gaze" describes:

A male character who literally stares at female characters A technique in visual art where the subject looks directly at the viewer How texts position the viewer/reader to see women from a heterosexual male perspective as objects of visual pleasure The way male authors describe other male characters

Question 2

Gilbert and Gubar's "angel/monster dichotomy" refers to:

The conflict between good and evil in Gothic literature The double nature of all human beings A classification system for types of villains in fiction The reduction of women in literature to either passive purity or dangerous transgression

Question 3

Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity argues that:

Gender is not a fixed identity but is constituted through repeated performances that create the illusion of a stable, natural category People are always acting or pretending to be a different gender Gender is a biological fact determined at birth Only actors on stage perform gender

Question 4

A feminist reading of a text where female characters are described only through their physical appearance would argue this:

Shows good descriptive writing Objectifies women by reducing them to their bodies and denying them interiority Is a neutral literary choice with no ideological implications Demonstrates the author admires women

Question 5

Intersectionality is important to contemporary feminist criticism because it recognises that:

All women experience oppression in exactly the same way Feminism should only focus on white, middle-class women's issues Gender oppression intersects with race, class, sexuality, and other factors to create distinct experiences Gender is the only significant axis of oppression in society

Feminist Reading of Texts