Reviews for The New feminist criticism

The average rating for The New feminist criticism based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-29 00:00:00 Monnier Franck From my studying days I knew Elaine Showalter from her insightful analysis of R.L. Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll's Closet" (1999). When I ordered "The New Feminist Criticism" I was not aware of the detail that this scientific anthology was published way back in 1985. But I got the book cheap enough not to care. This interesting selection of texts builds on the ... let's say "second wave" of feminist literary criticism and theory. I read it as an interested novice who rode back in time. The first third of the book is about the goals of the new movement and the foundation of a female literary canon. Some detailed analyses (Annette Kolodny shines especially) made me want to read early classics of feminist novelists (and more recent poets) I never heard of before. The second part is about (different) women's cultures. Here I really liked Barbara Smith's approach who basically accuses some of her colleages of the same marginalisation (or even ignorance) regarding black and lesbian female writers, which they used to condemn the patriarchal structures of literary criticism and theory. It really speaks for the collection that Showalter allowed Smith to get rid of the kid gloves (Showalter herself receives some fierce punches). The third part was of a more heterogenic nature, with a slight emphasis on the recent French feminist movement (which basically did very little for me, because I don't even know about most of the primary rexts). But even here I found some interesting questions and topics. I will probably never grow into a man primarily interested in feminist criteria while writing about movies, but after reading this book I really saw some movies with different eyes (especially Terry Gilliam's "The Man who killed Don Quixote"). Thoroughly recommended if you're into academia and the basics of feminism.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-10-21 00:00:00 Nancy Carter As in any compilation, there were some essays I liked more than other, but in general it was a good initiation for me into feminist criticism.