This essay offers a very basic introduction to feminist literary theory, and a compendium of Great Writers Inspire resources that can be approached from a feminist perspective. It provides suggestions for how material on the Great Writers Inspire site can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about feminist approaches to literature. Questions for reflection or discussion are highlighted in the text. Links in the text point to resources in the Great Writers Inspire site.
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Approaches to Literature
Feminist Approaches to Literature
This section brings together resources from the across the Great Writers Inspire site to illustrate how these can be used as a starting point for exploration of or classroom discussion about the political aspects of literature.
You may want to start by reading the 'Feminist Approaches to Literature' essay:
Image licence:
"The age of brass. or the triumphs of Woman's rights" [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
| # | Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theatre, 1660-1760: The Arrival of the Actress |
In this undergraduate lecture, David Taylor describes one of the key theatrical developments of... |
David Taylor |
| 2 | Literature and Gender, 1660-1760 |
In this introductory lecture, Kathleen Keown considers representations of gender in the... |
Kathleen Keown |
| 3 | Queer Theory and Gender Performativity |
Lecture by Professor Paul H. Fry, part of Open Yale course 'Introduction to Theory of Literature... |
Paul Fry |
| 4 | How words, form and structure create meaning: Women and writing (pt2) |
Video podcast and discussion board. |
Simon Swift |
| 5 | How words, form and structure create meaning: Women and writing (pt1) |
Video podcast and discussion forum. By Simon Swift, University of Leeds. |
Simon Swift |
| 6 | The Classical Feminist Tradition (lecture) |
Lecture by Professor Paul H. Fry, part of Open Yale course 'Introduction to Theory of Literature... |
OpenYale |
| 7 | The Victorians: Gender and Sexuality (lecture) |
Free public lecture by Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA. From Gresham College. Available as video... |
Richard Evans |
| 8 | Jonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing |
Dr Abigail Williams gives a talk on Jonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing |
Abigail Williams |
| # | Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Male memory, female subject: the case of Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft |
Janet Todd gives the keynote lecture at the Silence in the Archives conference held at Wolfson... |
Janet Todd |
| 2 | The Women who 'Meant to Do It': George Eliot and Celebrity Performance |
The novelist Patricia Duncker gives the keynote lecture at the Life-Writing and Female Celebrity... |
Patricia Duncker |
| 3 | As You Like It |
Asking 'what happens in As You Like It', this lecture considers the play's... |
Emma Smith |
| 4 | Jonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing |
Dr Abigail Williams gives a talk on Jonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing |
Abigail Williams |
| 5 | The Comedy of Errors |
Lecture 12 in the Approaching Shakespeare series asks how seriously we can take the farcical... |
Emma Smith |
| 6 | George Eliot 3. Reception History |
In this third and final podcast, Dr Catherine Brown discusses the popularity of George Eliot... |
Catherine Brown |
| 7 | George Eliot 2. Genre and Justice |
The second lecture in the series on George Eliot considers how narrative justice operates in... |
Catherine Brown |
| 8 | English and Gender |
Professor Deborah Cameron explores some of the key theories surrounding the use of language by... |
Deborah Cameron |
| 9 | Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman |
Part of the Shelley's Ghost Exhibition. In her most famous work Mary Wollstonecraft argued... |
Annabell James |
| 10 | The Duchess of Malfi: John Webster |
In dramatizing a woman's sexual choices in a notably sympathetic manner, this tragedy... |
Emma Smith |
| 11 | The Roaring Girl: Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker |
Based on a contemporary scandal of a woman who dressed in male clothing, this play of topsy-... |
Emma Smith |
| # | Essay Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Anonymous Jane Austen |
Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous authors in the western canon (possibly helped... |
Kate O'Connor |
| 2 | Mary Leapor |
A servant maid who died in relative obscurity at the age of just twenty-four, Mary Leapor (1722-... |
Jennifer Batt |
| 3 | Charlotte Brontë: A Wish for Wings |
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was born on April 21, 1816, the third daughter of Rev. Patrick and... |
Erin Nyborg |
| # | Title | Description | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lady Chatterley's lover |
ebook version of Lady Chatterley's lover |
Lawrence, D.H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930 |
| 2 | Tess of the d'Urbervilles |
ebook version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles |
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 |
| 3 | The Canterbury Tales |
ebook version of The Canterbury Tales |
Geoffrey Chaucer |
| 4 | The Roaring Girl or Moll Cutpurse |
ebook version of The Roaring Girl or Moll Cutpurse |
Dekker, Thomas and Middleton, Thomas |
| 5 | Pamela |
or |
Samuel Richardson |
| 6 | The Faerie Queene |
Disposed into twelue bookes, |
Edmund Spenser |
| 7 | The Yellow Wallpaper | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | |
| 8 | Jane Eyre |
Illustrated by F. H. Townsend |
Charlotte Brontë |
| 9 | A Room of One's Own | Virginia Woolf | |
| 10 | Canterbury tales |
The Cambridge ms (University Library, Gg.4.27) of Chaucer's Canterbury tales.
|
Geoffrey Chaucer |
| 11 | Emma |
Routledge's 1883 edition |
Jane Austen |
| # | Resource Title | Description | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The age of brass. or the triumphs of Woman's rights |
"The age of brass. or the triumphs of Woman's rights", an 1869 lithograph print published by... |