Marxist-Feminist Criticism Marxist-Feminist Criticism

Feminist consciousness, according to Gerda Lerner (1993), consists of five specific elements. It encompasses the awareness of women that they belong to a subordinate group and that as members of such a group they have suffered wrongs. Secondly, it involves the recognition that this condition of subordination is not natural, but societally determined. Third, feminist consciousness mandates the development of a sense of sisterhood. Fourth, it calls for the autonomous definition by women of their goals and strategies for changing their condition. Finally, feminist consciousness is directed toward the development of an alternative vision of the future.

Feminist literary criticism, in the view of Maggie Humm (1986) assumes that there are sex-related writing strategies as well as sex-generated constructions of gender that appear in literary productions. The evidence of specifically female forms in literature and particularly of female forms in Victorian literature is catalogued by Humm (1986) who refers to patterns of disjunction, dress iconography, anxiety motifs, otherworldliness, and subordination to more powerful male figures.

Within the Victorian literary genre, male writers such as Thomas Hardy (1985) in novels such as Jude the Obscure attempted to depict women with a certain degree of sensitivity. Anne Mickelson (1976) believes that Hardy approached the man-woman relationship and human sexuality with reference to the split between nature and society. W

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The Victorian Novel Marxist-Feminist Criticism .... The application of Marxist Feminist criticism will reveal that Hardy's construction of women maintains Victorian gender norms and does not deviate .... (2237 9 )

Marxism and Modern Feminism .... of gender (1384) to a basically Marxist line of .... connections to other modes of new feminist research" (1377). .... though an element of social criticism looms large .... (1931 8 )

Katherine Anne Porter: A Feminist Critique .... characterize this feminine emphasis as Aristotelian or perhaps even Marxist. .... Criticism: A Prologue." The Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism. .... (5316 21 )

In the Castle of My Skin and Barbados .... radical/reformist/Marxist politics. That is consistent with early-stage criticism sympathetic to Lamming's text. To get a sense of an early feminist critique .... (1816 7 )

The individual experience of culture .... distinctions and convergences of feminist, Marxist, and structuralist .... with the emergence of feminist literary discourse .... of 'higher' and 'lower' criticism" was a .... (4792 19 )

t a school like structuralism, Marxist literary theorists read literature as a document of social change and the growth of a correct social consciousness. Applying this particular lens to Victorian fiction allows the analyst to examine works of fiction and their inherent characterization with regard to the larger social place and space in which such works were created (Swingle, 1987). Such an analysis will reveal gendered attributions regarding female nature that clearly identify Hardy as conflicted regarding the "urban Miss" and her aspirations. Rationale and Justification of the Research A number of scholarly studies of feminist and Marxist-feminist criticism can be identified in the literature (Eagleton, 1976; Humm, 1986; Poovey, 1984; Showalter, 1971). Similarly, a number of critical analyses of Victorian literature, including that of Swingle (1987), are also readily available for analysis. Primary sources, including the novels of Thomas Hardy and the Brontes are equally available as are commentaries by Virginia Woolf (1965, 1979). These sources are of enormous significance in establishing theoretical foundations on which the proposed research will be based. Additionally, there is a substantial body

Category: Literature - M