Literature and Media 2024-25 PDF

## Literature and Media: Interdisciplinary English Studies 2024-25 ### 3.1. Feminism and Literature: Feminism influences literature by aiming for more equality between the genders, for example, by increasing the number of women authors who get published. Feminist literature is any written text t...

## Literature and Media: Interdisciplinary English Studies 2024-25 ### 3.1. Feminism and Literature: Feminism influences literature by aiming for more equality between the genders, for example, by increasing the number of women authors who get published. Feminist literature is any written text that supports feminist beliefs or the belief in the political, social, economic, and cultural equality of women. Feminist literature is a significant channel through which authors express their frustrations with established ideas about women in patriarchal societies and their thoughts about the feminist movement itself. ### 3.2. Basic Characteristics of Feminist Literature: Feminists focus on analyzing literature to show how are women presented and how are relationships between men and women represented in order to expose stereotypes and misconceptions, and/or present new models to be inspiring to men and women and to change social norms. Therefore, the following are points that would make one call the text a feminist one: * Literary texts that explore attitudes towards women * Literary texts that support belief in women's rights * Literary texts that expose forms of women oppression * Literary texts that portray stereotypes of women * Literary texts that allow minority voices to be heard * Literary texts that tackle harassment and violence against women * Literary texts that discuss themes of men/women relationships, women's psychological and mental health, childbearing, women empowerment, women choices ...etc. ### 3.3. An example of a feminist poem: **Activity 1:** Read the following poem and then answer the questions: Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the tree; They pace in sleek chivalric certainty. Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool Find even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand. When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. The tigers in the panel that she made Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid. **Questions:** 1. Based on the above characteristics, what makes Adrienne Rich's poem "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" a feminist text? 2. Write down the words that describe how Aunt Jennifer feels. Then, choose one image that shows her feelings and explain it. 3. What is the domestic activity that Aunt Jennifer is doing? 4. Does Aunt Jennifer have freedom of choice? Why or why not? Provide evidence from the poem. 5. What is the significance of the tapestry? 6. What is the significance of the tigers? 7. What type of narrator is used in the poem? Why does the speaker distance herself from Aunt Jennifer from your opinion? **Suggested Analysis of Aunt Jennifer's Tigers as a feminist text**: *Aunt Jennifer's Tigers*, a poem by Adrienne Rich is a part of the feminist literary genre. It portrays the traditional domestic role assigned to a woman and her position in the oppressive patriarchal society. In the poem, Aunt Jennifer, a strong woman who lives a life which she does not choose for herself willingly, fulfills all the responsibilities as a wife without saying a word of complaint. Along with all the hardships which she faces through the course of her married life, she does not give up on her dreams of having a life of her own and on her own terms so she finds art as a medium to express her innermost desires and wishes in the form of tigers, on her tapestry which are not afraid of men. To Aunt Jennifer, art provides an excellent way of escape from all her fears. Aunt Jennifer is oppressed in her married life as it is a massive weight for her. The poet presents the whole concept of marriage through the technique of metonymy by using the symbol of marriage wedding band. The nature of married life is described as being very unbearable for Aunt Jennifer as the wedding band sits heavily upon her hand. Aunt Jennifer's misery does not end in death. According to the speaker of the poem, an omniscient narrator, the cruelty with which she was treated in her life will be seen even after her death as her hands will show all the ordeals with which she was mastered by and their marks will still be visible on her dead body. Though the speaker uses the word aunt which suggests that perhaps the speaker might have known her closely as a relative or an acquaintance but the element of emotional bonding is missing and instead a distance can be sensed. The speaker describes the tapestry with the scenic images formed on it which shows Aunt Jennifer's fantasies of a dream world while tigers are given the human qualities to represent Aunt Jennifer's inner desires of freedom as the tigers' prance and do not fear and will go on proud and unafraid. The speaker of the poem also seems like an omniscient narrator who can look at both the present and future of Aunt Jennifer. Therefore, it can be said that the speaker of the poem is the poet herself who has distanced her personality to give a highlighted effect to the poem because if she had associated herself emotionally with Aunt Jennifer, she would have to give many details about what she thinks but the poet in the poem gives mere description just like reporting an event so this creates great sympathies for Aunt Jennifer in the readers because what is left unsaid has a great impact. One may consider Aunt Jennifer to have strong determination as she does not give up on her dreams. The art which she depicts through her tapestry shows her struggle for freedom from the life which she was forced to live. She lives another life in an imaginary world created by herself where she could express herself freely and openly with no fear at all. Aunt Jennifer's art shows her desire about how she wished her life to be and the images which she forms are symbolic of her inner self that she always wanted to be like tigers who go on prancing without any fear. ### 3.4. Main books listed as feminist/ Seminal works: * **Charlotte Brontë's (1816–55) Jane Eyre**: Although this book was not written as an expression of feminist concerns, its strong female character served as a radical role model for women in the Victorian Age. Charlotte Brontë published the book under the pen name 'Currer Bell'. One of its most memorable quotes "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will". (Chapter 23). *Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Bronte has been adapted into a movie. * **Kate Chopin's 1866 novel *The Awakening*:** is considered a classic novel of feminist thought. * **Other books that have been adapted into movies as well include**: *Wuthering Heights* by Emily Bronte, *The Handmaid's Tale* by Margaret Atwood, *Little Women* by Louisa May Alcott, *The Bell Jar* by Sylvia Plath, *The Golden Notebook* by Doris Lessing * **Important books by colored women/Black women include**: *The Bluest Eye* by Toni Morrison and *The Color Purple* by Alice Walker. In 2019, Bernadine Evaristo *Girl, Woman, Other* (2019); became the first Black woman to win the Booker prize since its establishment in 1969.