Elaine Showalter’s "Toward a Feminist Poetics"

  Elaine Showalter’s "Toward a Feminist Poetics" is a foundational essay in feminist literary criticism that introduces "gynocriticism" — a framework that studies literature created by women through a lens focusing on female experience, themes, and cultural significance.

Section I: The Status of Feminist Criticism in the 1970s

Showalter starts by criticizing the male-dominated academic perspectives of her time, where prominent theorists like Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton largely ignored or dismissed feminist viewpoints. Feminist criticism was frequently labeled as "women’s lib propaganda," with critics such as Robert Partlow viewing it as biased rather than a legitimate literary approach.

Section II: Suspicion of Theory

Feminist criticism’s development was further hindered by skepticism toward literary theory, often deemed patriarchal. As Mary Daly argued, the academic focus on theory seemed to erase women’s questions and experiences, isolating feminist thought within male-defined intellectual boundaries.

Section III: Feminists' Resistance to Academia

Some feminist critics resisted formal integration into academia, fearing that scholarly acceptance might dilute feminist criticism's activism. Showalter suggests that this resistance stems from long-standing exclusion and a psychic barrier resulting from women's limited historical roles in literary scholarship.

Section IV: Woman as Reader and Woman as Writer

Showalter distinguishes between two branches of feminist criticism: feminist critique and gynocriticism. Feminist critique, or "woman as reader," analyzes how women are represented in literature and explores male biases. Gynocriticism, or "woman as writer," studies texts by women to uncover uniquely female expressions, literary structures, and experiences.

Section V: Feminist Critique in Practice — The Mayor of Casterbridge

Showalter applies feminist critique to Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, highlighting the different interpretations male and female critics might bring to the novel’s treatment of female characters. Male critics’ perspectives, like those of Irving Howe, can overlook the implications of Henchard’s treatment of women, focusing on male experiences as universal.

Section VI: Gynocriticism and the Female Culture

Gynocriticism seeks to establish a female-centered framework, unbound by male literary traditions, and instead builds on women's cultural experiences and expressions. This approach engages with broader fields like history, sociology, and psychology, creating a female subculture within literary studies.

Section VII: Prominent Feminist Critics in Gynocriticism

Showalter highlights pioneering American feminist scholars, such as Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and Nancy Cott, whose work provides insights into the 19th-century American female experience and literature. These studies reveal themes of solidarity and shared cultural legacies among women, contributing valuable dimensions to feminist literary criticism.

Section VIII, Showalter underscores the necessity of considering the political, social, and personal histories surrounding women writers. She critiques the failure to fully contextualize women’s artistic decisions and highlights cases such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, where Barrett Browning’s relationship with Robert Browning significantly impacted her work. The “framework of the female subculture,” according to Showalter, is crucial for interpreting women's literature in ways that recognize both internal conflicts and external influences, a sentiment echoed by Virginia Woolf’s recognition of external “conditions that have nothing whatever to do with art.”

Section IX delves into the painful but transformative process of feminist awakening, likening it to suffering that catalyzes change, a theme captured in Florence Nightingale's Cassandra. Showalter identifies that female suffering in literature is often romanticized or commodified, shaping a “literary commodity.” Such narratives continue into contemporary fiction, questioning whether women’s assertion of identity paradoxically leads to self-destruction. Showalter encourages rising above these narratives, seeing figures like Adrienne Rich as progressive voices who seek to transform female suffering into a force for change.

Section X, Showalter discusses the unique characteristics and societal assumptions of women’s literature. Victorian views positioned women’s novels as outlets for their frustrations and desires, allowing societal norms to remain undisturbed. Showalter acknowledges that, historically, female authors had been constrained, influenced by publishers and a male-dominated industry. To counter this, women founded publishing houses and envisioned a literary tradition capable of expressing a distinct “female consciousness.”

Section XI introduces Showalter’s seminal concept of three phases in feminist literature: Feminine, Feminist, and Female. The Feminine phase (1840-1880) saw women writing in competition with men, often adopting male pseudonyms, whereas the Feminist phase (1880-1920) spotlighted social injustices. In the Female phase (from the 1920s onward), women began to reject imitation and protest, deriving inspiration from purely female experiences. This phase exemplifies Showalter’s call for a historically aware, continuous tradition that moves beyond isolated literary icons and situates women’s literary evolution within broader cultural contexts.

Through these phases and the act of rediscovery, Showalter argues that female literary history should form a continuous narrative, unearthing patterns and connections across generations, challenging orthodox literary canons, and establishing a richer, more inclusive tradition. This continuous tradition aims to liberate women’s literature from historical isolation, creating a cohesive literary heritage reflective of women’s evolving voices and experiences.