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Feminist literary criticism
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==Methods Employed== Feminist scholarship has developed a variety of ways to unpack literature in order to understand its essence through a feminist lens. Scholars under the camp known as Feminine Critique sought to divorce literary analysis away from abstract diction-based arguments and instead tailored their criticism to more "grounded" pieces of literature (plot, characters, etc.) and recognize the perceived implicit misogyny of the structure of the story itself. Others schools of thought such as [[gynocriticism]]—which is considered a 'female' perspective on women's writings—uses a historicist approach to literature by exposing exemplary female scholarship in literature and the ways in which their relation to gender structure relayed in their portrayal of both fiction and reality in their texts. Gynocriticism was introduced during the time of second wave feminism. [[Elaine Showalter]] suggests that feminist critique is an "ideological, righteous, angry, and admonitory search for the sins and errors of the past," and says gynocriticism enlists "the grace of imagination in a disinterested search for the essential difference of women's writing."<ref name=":1">Lanser, Susan S. "Feminist Literary Criticism: How Feminist? How Literary? How Critical?." ''NWSA Journal'' 3.1 (1991): 3. ''Academic Search Complete''.</ref> More contemporary scholars attempt to understand the intersecting points of femininity and complicate our common assumptions about gender politics by accessing different categories of identity (race, class, sexual orientation, etc.) The ultimate goal of any of these tools is to uncover and expose underlying patriarchal tensions within novels and interrogate the ways in which our basic literary assumptions about such novels are contingent on female subordination. In this way, the accessibility of literature broadens to a far more inclusive and holistic population. Moreover, works that historically received little or no attention, given the historical constraints around female authorship in some cultures, are able to be heard in their original form and unabridged. This makes a broader collection of literature for all readers insofar as all great works of literature are given exposure without bias towards a gender influenced system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_femin.html|title=Bedford / St. Martin's|access-date=29 January 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150901143656/http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/Virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_femin.html|archive-date=1 September 2015}}</ref> Women have also begun to employ anti-patriarchal themes to protest the historical censorship of literature written by women. The rise of decadent [[feminist literature]] in the 1990s was meant to directly challenge the sexual politics of the patriarchy. By employing a wide range of female [[sexual exploration]] and lesbian and queer identities by those like Rita Felski and Judith Bennet, women were able attract more attention about feminist topics in literature.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=398842d6-fc94-48bc-84be-1f4e5f7ea20c%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=112|title=EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page|access-date=29 January 2016}}{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Since the development of more complex conceptions of gender and subjectivity and [[third-wave feminism]], feminist literary criticism has taken a variety of new routes, namely in the tradition of the [[Frankfurt School]]'s [[critical theory]], which analyzes how the dominant ideology of a subject influences societal understanding. It has also considered gender in the terms of [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]ian and [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan]]ian [[psychoanalysis]], as part of the [[deconstruction]] of existing relations of power, and as a concrete political investment.<ref name="Barry">Barry, Peter, 'Feminist Literary Criticism' in ''Beginning theory'' (Manchester University Press: 2002), {{ISBN|0-7190-6268-3}}</ref> The more traditionally central feminist concern with the representation and politics of women's lives has continued to play an active role in criticism. More specifically, modern feminist criticism deals with those issues related to the perceived intentional and unintentional patriarchal programming within key aspects of society including education, politics and the work force. When looking at literature, modern feminist literary critics also seek ask how feminist, literary, and critical the critique practices are, with scholars such as Susan Lanser looking to improve both literature analysis and the analyzer's own practices to be more diverse.<ref name=":1" />
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