Gynocriticism
Gynocriticism – a term introduced into literary studies by the prominent American literary scholar Elaine Showalter in order to identify the limitations of feminist criticism and to establish a distinct framework for the study of women’s writing.
According to Showalter, feminist criticism focuses primarily on woman as the reader of texts written by men. It is “political and polemical” and has limited possibilities for developing an autonomous theoretical framework. This form of criticism examines the meanings of sexual codes and considers “woman-as-sign” within historical and social contexts. Its social orientation was significantly influenced by the ideas and concepts of Simone de Beauvoir.
Gynocriticism, by contrast, focuses on the figure of the woman writer and seeks constructive methods for analysing literature written by women. Its emphasis on women’s culture brings it into close contact with such disciplines as anthropology, history, and sociology.
In her essay “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (1981), Showalter distinguishes four models of gynocriticism: the biological, linguistic, psychoanalytic, and cultural models. Drawing on the concept of the “wild zone,” borrowed from British anthropology, to describe women’s culture as occupying a marginal position in relation to dominant male culture, Showalter explores the possibilities of this largely uncharted cultural space (Showalter, 1996, p. 510).
Reference:
Showalter, E. (1996). Feministychna krytyka u pushchi [Feminist criticism in the wilderness]. In M. Zubrytska (Ed.), Slovo. Znak. Dyskurs: Antolohiia svitovoi literaturno-krytychnoi dumky XX st. [Word. Sign. Discourse: An anthology of twentieth-century literary-critical thought] (pp. 510–535). Lviv: Litopys. [in Ukrainian]
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