THEORIES OF

LITERARY
CRITICISM(GENDER)
By:
ATHIRAH BT. MD. YUNUS
KHAIRIL HUDA BT. AZMI
NUR AIMI BT. REMLI
MOHD SHUKRI B. HARUDDIN

GENDER CRITICISM
GENDER CRITICISM
Came to the forefront of the
theoretical scene first as feminist
criticism but has come to include
the investigation of all gender and
sexual categories and identities.
Term "gender" refer to the social
and cultural constructions of
masculinities and femininities.




The theorists reached a similar
conclusion that the sexual categories
are products of culture and as such help
create social reality rather than simply
reflect it.
Feminist criticism is concerned with the
ways in which literature and other
cultural productions reinforce or
undermine the economic, political,
social, and psychological oppression of
women.



WAVES OF FEMINISM
FIRST WAVE FEMINISM - (late 1700s-early 1900's):
writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the
Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities
between the sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and
Victoria Woodhull contribute to the women's suffrage
movement.
SECOND WAVE FEMINISM - (early 1960s-late 1970s):
building on more equal working conditions necessary
in America during World War II, movements such as
the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed
in 1966, cohere feminist political activism.
THIRD WAVE FEMINISM - (early 1990s)-present:
Writers like Alice Walker work to reconcile feminism
with the concerns of the black community and the
survival and wholeness of her people, men and women
both, and for the promotion of dialog and community
as well as for the valorization of women and of all the
varieties of work women perform.

THEORISTS OPINION
1. Sigmund Freud: women must learn to
accept their lack of power.
2. Judith Butler: i) In Butlers terms the
performance of gender, sex, and sexuality is
about power in society.
ii) gender and heterosexuality are constructed
as natural because the opposition of the
male and female sexes is perceived as natural
in the social imaginary






3. Mark Blechner: i)He proposes that the
words "homosexuality" and
"heterosexuality" be given prefixes,
depending on the dimension that is the same
or different between partners.
ii) Males who penetrate other males are
considered masculine and not gay and are
not the targets of prejudice.
4. Jacques Lacan: Lacan's theory of sexuation
organizes femininity and masculinity
according to different unconscious structures.


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