Transcript ACL 3007: Reading Contemporary Fiction

ACL 1001: Reading Contemporary Fiction
Lecture 8: Feminism and the Novel

What is feminism?

What doe it mean to be a feminist?

What is the purpose of feminist literary
criticism?

How can it affect the way we read?
(Morris, 1993, 1)
Definition of Feminism

It is a political perception based on two
fundamental premises: (1) that gender
difference is the foundation of a structural
inequality between men and women, by which
women suffer systematic social injustice, and
(2) that the inequality between the sexes is not
the result of biological necessity but is
produced by the cultural construction of
gender difference (Morris, 1993, p. 1).
Female, Feminine, Feminist

‘female’ - designating biological sex

‘feminine’ - referring to cultural
conceptions of gender

‘feminist’ - political perceptions and aims
(Morris, 1993, 2)
Literature


What does the study of literature have to do
with these political and ethical debates?
How can an understanding of literature
promote understanding of the nature and
causes of women’s inequality in the
nonfictional world and help to change it?
(Morris, 1993, p. 6)

According to Ellen Rooney (2006), feminist literary
theory and feminist novels are concerned with
challenging patriarchy; disputing the stereotypes of
women (and men); ‘rewriting’ femininity; and
questioning the construction of the literary canon in
terms of its exclusion of novels by female writers and
the way in which women are represented in the novels
that are included.

As Simone de Beauvoir stated: ‘One is not born, but
rather becomes a woman’
Feminists and the Literary Canon

Feminists ‘are concerned to discover
how literature as a cultural practice may
be involved in producing the meanings
and values that lock women into
inequality, rather than simply reflecting
the already existing reality of women’s
lives in literary texts’ (Morris, 1993, 8)
Feminism and the Novel
The novel is ‘the extended exploration of
individual characters’ consciousness through
the imagination, that is of distinctive value in
extending feminist understanding’
 ‘At every stage of its development, feminism
needs understanding of women’s changing
consciousness; the novel is an essential
means of alerting us, sensitising us and
enhancing our use of the imagination to this
end’ (Thornton, 2006, p. 39)

Importance of the Novel to Feminism
The novel is important to feminism as it ‘giv[es]
imaginative entry into the inside or conscious
life of women (particular characters) in the
circumstances of their time and place’ (2006,
40)
 Reading Cat’s Eye is dependent on an
understanding of time and place i.e
1940’s/1980’s Canada; the history of
colonialism etc

Cat’s Eye

The novel is narrated by its protagonist, Elaine Risley.

It operates via flashbacks from the present to the past
and vice versa; from Elaine’s present as a middleaged artist to her childhood, adolescence and young
adulthood.

It centres around a retrospective of Elaine’s art which
explores the intersections between art and life, and
enables her to deal with the trauma of her childhood
and also the social expectations of women in the
1940s.
Cat’s Eye – a feminist novel?
Cat’s Eye fits with the concerns of feminist
projects both fictional and non-fictional.
However, it does not offer a simplistic or
stereotyped approach to feminist thinking; its
protagonist is complex in the way she engages
with and rejects aspects of feminism.
 The novel questions and challenges the
gender binary male/female;
masculine/feminine.
 It does this through an examination of the
process of gender socialisation.

Socialisation

Socialisation is the process through which we are
taught to behave in ways society considers
acceptable. Socialisation is based on the
understanding that there are two distinct genders with
social roles attached to them e.g men – breadwinners;
women – mothers/housewives

In Cat’s Eye, the family, the education system and the
church, three main agents of socialisation, are
criticized for creating gender divisions within society
and for ‘normalising’ the sex-role stereotypes to which
men and women in 1940’s Canada were expected to
adhere.
The Family

The novel explores the social roles for men and
women pre and post World War 2.

By focusing on the families of Elaine and her female
‘friends’, the novel presents a picture of the patriarchal
family structure in order to critique it.

The novel explores issues of power within the family;
the division between the public (read: masculine)
sphere of work and the private (read: feminine) sphere
of the home; and the links between the socialisation of
girls and the rise of consumerist culture in the post-war
era.
Female Friendships
Elaine’s ‘friendship’ with Cordelia, Grace, and Carol
highlights the way in which children replicate the
power dynamic shown to them by adults, particularly
within the family unit; it also shows the way in which
girls tend to use relational aggression to wield power
over each other.
 The trauma of Elaine’s socialisation into the world of
girls impacts on her future relationships with women
(she usually feels uncomfortable and unsafe), leads
her to view the world of girls with contempt, and
renders her unable (to some extent) to feel empathy
for other women (thus complicating her foray into
second wave feminism later in life, and her
designation as a feminist artist).

Difference

In order to question the extent to which gender is
‘natural’, Atwood contrasts Elaine’s family with the
families of her friends; she also points out the way in
which Elaine and her brother are more similar than
different prior to entering the gendered environment of
the school.

The novel also draws on the issue of racial difference
e.g the character of Mr Banerji to make a point about
being considered ‘the other’ in an homogenous
environment, whether that be based on gender, class,
or cultural norms.
Second Wave Feminism

Elaine’s career as an artist is contrasted with that of
her male counterparts, such as Mr Hrbik and Jon,
whose attitudes to women shape her thinking about
femininity and feminism.

The novel explores the discrimination against female
artists in Toronto’s art world, and uses this as a
metonym for the public sphere in general.

Whilst Elaine joins a feminist consciousness-raising
group, she expresses her discomfort and scepticism
about the feminist movement and its aims, particularly
its notion of sisterhood based on an homogenous
notion of feminism.