I think that this is an interesting piece that is a good example of some of the founding principles of female criticism that one should read before doing any sort of feminine criticism response to an article or type of media. It also is a example that the majority of criticisms from a feminine perspective in contemporary times should show that "Feminist criticism concern itself with stereotypical representations of genders. It also may trace the history of relatively unknown or undervalued women writers, potentially earning them their rightful place within the literary canon, and helps create a climate in which women's creativity may be fully realized and appreciated." Check it out!
http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/feminist.crit.html
Feminine Criticism Blog
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
This is a great website from the British Broadcasting network, that actually has a lot of useful page options that give a detailed summary of the role that women played specifically throughout Queen Victoria's reign. Some of the more interesting pages are: "The Ideal Woman", "Wife and Mother", and "Social Responsibility". Give this website a look and see what you think!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_01.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_01.shtml
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Some critical background information on one of the most popular authors and MWC contemporary, Jane Austen. Surly her work in not just female super power novels such as Pride and Prejudice, will encourage some discussion towards female rights, specifically topics involving the female heroin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen
Currently I am in a Critical reading class at SUNY Fredonia. In which we have been looking at how particular lenses of writing, such as Marxism, Structeralism, Formalism, and psychological perspectives influence or are a product of their texts. As you probably know, Mary Wollstonecraft and her more contemporary as well as popular women's rights activist and author Jane Austen both advocated their styles in a different manner. Give it a read!
Structuralism
v. Formalism
One of the reasons we can see a disconnect between the
works of Jane Austen from Mary Wollstonecraft, is primarily a product of their
works functioning under different schools of thought from a critics point of
view. We should allow that Mary Wollstonecraft’s works drew largely from her
own personal experiences i.e. religion, relationships, social experiences,
degradations she faced, and familial history all are commented on by her(most
pivotally in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), thus causing the
critic or reader to take a structuralism ideology. This is part play in
contrast to Jane Austen who was hailed for ability to let the text speak for
itself because it’s functioning (for example Pride And Prejudice) evokes
from solely the pages, not from outside influence. The connections we
make though Jane Austen from formalism criticism, and Mary Wollstonecraft from
a structuralism evaluation, are what truly makes these two authors different
but effectively idiosyncratic.
Drawing from the works of Mary Wollstonecraft in “A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, Wollstonecraft allows for interjections on
a popular subject that trademarks her criticism values, and lenses in many a
work of hers, religion. In reference to God she recollects her Catholic roots
and supports her argument that men and women are created with the same virtues
and equality and allows the reader insight that it is her own belief that
conjures. Since we can conclude that religious contexts exist in other mediums
of her work other than A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, we can attribute
biographically its origin stems from Mary herself; she confesses that “- Thanks
to that Being, who impressed them onto my soul, and gave me sufficient strength
of mind to dare to exert my own reason, till, becoming dependent only on him
for the support of my virtue, I view, with indignation, the mistaken notions
that enslave my sex” (Vindication, 40).
From a critical point of view e can attain that her personal biography is
implicated onto the pages, deeming it a gathering from a structuralism analysis.
Wollstonecraft’s well-roundedness in a A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,
advises that her ideas cultivate truly from her letters, fictional pieces,
and persuasive texts.
To contend from a Formalism inquiry, the works of Jane
Austen, while seen in a different light, operates effectively on a strictly
text to author position the same way the biographical and fictional works are a
lens for the reader to understand Wollstonecraft’s style in A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman. One of the ways that Austen “compensates” for lack of
addition of alternate works or biographical snippets of inclusion in Pride And
Prejudice, is her invocation of her creative style of description through
character narration, something seemingly absent in the persuasive argument
style convictions. The description of Mr. Darcy exemplifies Austen’s insightful
descriptions at narration when he is described as being “looked at with great
admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a great
disgust which turned the tide of his
popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company; and
above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save
him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy
to be compared with his friend (Prejudice,
8).
For lack of characterization and beautiful setting
utilized by Austen, Wollstonecraft shows that powerful and moving writing can
also come from command of language, biographical insight, and well-roundedness.
From a critical evaluation, either author should not be confused for lack of
the full appreciation in their own respective styles.
Works
Cited:
Austen, Jane, and
Donald J. Gray. Pride and Prejudice. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966. Print.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Print.
Here, we see that one of Mary Wollstonecraft's most significant drives for bother her creative works and those of her more persuasive arguments for women's rights. We can also see that one of her significant others, William Godwin, had perspective on her supposed form of faith. Check it out!
Religion or, foundation
and commitment to it, is a rule that is largely popular and has found its way
into much of Marry Wollstonecraft’s works. A large portion of her childhood was
guided by her ever long observance of God, and it was her true belief that a
truly intellectual person with good morals follows this path. Her accreditation
to many of her works lends itself to her religious foundation and its addition
to her completed pieces, which were critical in aiding a more powerful voice to
her as a female writer. However, with the comments from her husband William
Godwin, it could be contended that his views regarding his wife’s faith were
different and at some times challenging to her legacy as a feminist writer;
this questioning of her religious values seems to aid in the ever-present
binary rule of the submissive wife to the patriarchal husband. His perplexities
on the matter testify his thoughts of even his wife not being a factual and
valid writer and even to say that her admiration and relationship to God wasn’t
authentic, thus perpetuating female subservience.
We see the first instance of Godwin’s discredit to his
wife’s beliefs when he states that her values were “almost entirely of her own
creation. But she was not on that account less attached to it, or the less
scrupulous in discharging what she considered as its duties” (as cited in
Memoirs, 215). His undermining and disagreement of her faith was something that
bothered her and even in her own marriage, she seemed to be combating ignorance
of the classes adding “How can you blame
me for taking refuge in the idea of God, when I despair of finding sincerity
here on earth?”(Wollstonecraft 101).
Godwin continues, and adds that it more for the comfort of discussion
and lends no ties to actual verifiable belief when he adds that her faith “was
founded rather in taste, that in the niceties of polemical discussion” (as
cited in Memoirs, 215).
His skepticisms add further evidence of male domination
and he rectifies her “observing of God” to more of her way of being
passionately imaginative, and not real.
Bibliography
Johnson,
Claudia L. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.
Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most popular writers, philosophers, and speaker on the rights of women. Many female writers who followed after her, wrote in relation to original works by Mary herself. While advocating women's rights, she also was a school teacher and had worked at many orphanages, and developed works pertaining to the development of the child psyche. She advocates guidelines of parenthood with stern rules to follow, this essay follows up on that. Give it a read!
Mary Wollstonecraft’s writing seems as though it takes on the burden in laying
the rules of parental and childhood guidelines, from a civil duty perspective;
that her words draw not from her fascination as an educator or prolific
matriarchal figure to her readers, but instead her obligation to show the
values that women and child care-givers could gather behind and live by. In
Wollstonecraft’s Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: with Reflections in
The more important Duties of Life, she calls upon specific examples or
references to situations that form from outcomes of specific scenarios, so that
the reader may gather an instructive complex for a healthy growth and education
of their children.
One of the set ups that
Wollstonecraft offers that may aid in the parent-child relationship is her
example from “The Nursery”. She offers that “Children, who are left to the care
of ignorant nurses, have their stomachs overloaded with improper food, which
turns acid, and renders them very uncomfortable” (Wollstonecraft 7). This
scenario dictates to mothers that they must “suckle” or nurse their children;
Wollstonecraft explains the aftereffects of not nursing, and offers the
solution.
Another example we see comes from
the section “Moral Discipline”, where Wollstonecraft explains the outcomes of
children and their questions. All parents are eager to lean new methods to
exercise when it comes to raising their child, and Wollstonecraft realizes
this, and so in her examples is direct and convincing, offering a supportive
wealth of knowledge for the unsure parent. Wollstonecraft contends that
children are “mostly fond of stories, and proper ones would improve them, even
while they are amused. Instead of these, their heads are filled with improbable
tales, and superstitious accounts of invisible beings, which breed strange
prejudices and vain fears in their minds.” (Wollstonecraft 10). She offers that
parents must always give reasonable and fitting response. Wollstonecraft again
here shows how detrimental to child’s development may become, if certain
procedures are ignored.
Lastly, Wollstonecraft remarks on
how clothing can be harmful to the fragile psyche of a child. In her section
titled, “Dress” she explains that the outer expressiveness of clothing that a
child selects is more “unnatural” than anything else. Wollstonecraft writes; “
It gives rise to envy, and contests for trifling superiority, which do not
render a woman very respectable to the other sex” (Wollstonecraft 16). We see
again that although it may be of her opinion, Wollstonecraft’s predicted
conclusion for the discount of the smaller things, like nursing, stories, and
dress, can serve as vehicles for active parental involvement for growing
children.
Works Cited:
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters, with Reflections on Female Conduct in the More
Important Duties of Life,. Clifton [N.J.: A.M. Kelley, 1972. Print.
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