agreement that interpretation of literature involves critique of patriarchy. The emergence of feminist literary criticism is one of the major developments in literary
studies in the past thirty years. By knowing about the history of feminist, the definition of feminist, the kinds
of feminist, and about the critic itself, the writer can analyze and criticize the novel.
1. The History of Feminism
There are many theory that can be used in literary criticism but according to the statement of Soenarjati Djajanegara who assume that a work which question
about unbalance gender relationships a promotes that creating of a more balance social order between men and women as a feminist literary works.
Gender and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues. This often means a focus on gender-
equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.
As well as directly addressing inequality, attention to gender issues is regarded as important to the success of development programs, for all participants. The term
gender is used to refer to proposed social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. In this context, gender explicitly excludes reference biological
differences, to focus on cultural differences. This emerged from a number of different areas: La Cucina for example can be categorizes as the feminist one.
Feminism, as a construct, has probably existed as long as there have been women, although the word, derived from the French féminisme, did not enter the
English language until the end of the nineteenth century. If a broad concept of feminism includes women acting, speaking and writing on womens issues and rights,
then we can see that these concerns go back as far as recorded history. Unfortunately many talented womens contributions to history have been forgotten or ignored, but
modern scholarship is redressing this imbalance. Although feminist thinkers have always existed, many people consider Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman 1792 to be one of the first written works that can unambiguously be called feminist philosophy.
The outburst of feminist theory and practice, which has affected so many women’s lives in 1960s, differed from previous forms of feminism. It started from
assertion of women’s common sisterhood in oppression. Sisterhood expressed the idea that in general women have interests opposed to those of men, that men
generally dominate women, and generally benefit from this domination. During the 1970s, however, feminist produced new knowledge of women’s lives. Instead of
establishing women’s shared oppression as women, they began to emphasize the difference between women.
11
Feminist ideological criticism has a close relationship with the movement of feminist itself. This movement has along political history, developing as a substantial
11
Caroline Ramazanoglu, Feminism and the Contradictions of Oppression London: Routledge Publisher, 1997, p. 3.
force, in two big countries American and Britain, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
12
For the most part, feminist theory has assumed that there is some existing identity, understood through the category of women, who not only initiates feminist
interests and goals within discourse, but constitutes the subject for whom political representation is pursued.
13
While in practice feminist critics continue to use a variety of methodological approaches to literature, there are common assumptions that underlie a feminist
approach to anything. It is upon this commonality that wish to dwell, so as to a place feminist literary criticism within the context of a more general critical theory.
14
When women first organized in groups to talk together about the issue of sexism and male domination, they were clear that female were socialized to believe
sexist thinking and values as males, the difference being simply that males benefited from sexism more than females and were as a consequence less likely to want to
surrender patriarchal privilege.
15
It is not, however, just because the feminist movement “needs” to have a group called women oppressed by a group called men that this assertion is made, rather, it is
a conclusion that is derived from the massive weight of historical evidence; indeed it
12
Raman Selden, A Reader’s Guide To Contemporary Literary Theory, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1991,p. 206
13
Judith P. Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity New York: Routledge Publisher, 1990, p. 3.
14
Josephine Donovan, Feminist Literary Critisism: Exploration in Theory. Kentucky: the University Press of Kentucky, 1975,p. 74
15
Bell Hooks, Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics, London: Pluto Press, 2000, p. 7
is this evidence and the continuing mistreatment of women by men that has led to the feminist movement.
16
Revolutionary feminist consciousness-raising emphasized the importance of learning about patriarchy as a system of domination, how it became institutionalized
and how it is perpetuated and maintained.
17
According to Patrick McGuire patriarchy is the control by men, as individuals or as extended family or kinship heads, of the
labor of women. This control may be manifested in legally sanctioned ownership of women themselves or simply in the authority to assign women particular tasks.
Patriarchy still exists in some parts of the world, particularly in rural areas. However, its legacy endures in other settings, including domestic and interpersonal relations.
18
All version of feminism make a direct challenge to the assumption that women as a sex are naturally inferior to men. The argument that women are a culturally
constructed gender category rather than simply a biological sex led to a much broader feminist challenge to existing knowledge of the relation between men and women.
The idea of women oppression was a means of conceptualizing the supposedly natural inferiority of the feminine as unnatural. Feminists challenged the conceptual
separation of nature and culture which had allowed men to dominate women and had allowed women’s oppression to develop in the guise of women’s feminine.
19
16
Josephine Donovan Ed, Feminist Literary Criticism: Explorations In Theory, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1975, p. xi
17
Bell Hooks 2000, loc. cit.
18
Patrick McGuire and Donald McQuarie, From the Left Bank to the Mainstream: Historical Debates and Contemporary Research in Marxist Sociology, New York: Dix Hills Publisher, 1994, p.
48.
19
Caroline Ramazanoglu 1997, op. cit. 59-60
One of the women’s demands is the gender inequality. Gender is the set of social expectations associated with maleness and femaleness. By using the word
“gender,” sociologists suggest that the social construction of male and female behavior is as important to collective experience and action as biologically based
sexual characteristic.
20
Understanding the way male domination and sexism was expressed in everyday life created awareness in women of the ways they were victimized, exploited, and, in
worse, case scenarios, oppressed. Early on in contemporary feminist movement, consciousness-raising groups often became settings where women simply unleashed
pent-up hostility and rage about being victimized, with little or no focus on strategies of intervention and transformation. On a basic level many hurt and exploited women
used the consciousness raising group therapeutically. It was the site where they uncovered and openly revealed the depths of their intimate wounds. This confessional
aspect served as a healing ritual. Through consciousness-raising women gained the strength to challenge patriarchal forces at work and at home.
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2. The Definition of Feminism
