ELIT 48C

Class # 9

AGENDA

Feminist Literary Criticism

Mina Loy “Parturition”

Author Introduction:Ezra Pound: make it new!

What is Literary Theory?

A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important.

Feminist criticism is concerned with ―the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and ―this critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women" (Richter 1346). This misogyny, Tyson reminds us, can extend into diverse areas of our culture: "Perhaps the most chilling example [...] is found in the world of modern medicine, where drugs prescribed for both sexes often have been tested on male subjects only" (83).

Feminist Theory and Criticism

The objectives of the criticism include the

following:

1. To uncover and develop a female tradition of

writing

2. To interpret symbolism of women’s writing

so that it will be lost or ignored by the male

point of view.

3. To rediscover old texts

4. To analyze women writers and their writing’s

from a female perspective

5. To increase awareness of the sexual politics

of language and style.

First Wave Feminism

Ran from late 1700s-early 1900's: writers like Mary

Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of

Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the

sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria

Woodhull contribute to the women's suffrage

movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage

in 1920 with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment

Second Wave Feminism

From early 1960s-late 1970s: building on more equal working conditions necessary in America during World War II, movements such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, cohere feminist political activism. Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, 1972) and Elaine Showalter established the groundwork for the dissemination of feminist theories dove-tailed with the American Civil Rights movement

Third Wave Feminism

From early 1990s-present: resisting the perceived essentialist (over generalized, over simplified) ideologies and a white, heterosexual, middle class focus of second wave feminism, third wave feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories to expand on marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to ―reconcile [feminism] with the concerns of the black community [and] the survival and wholeness of her people, men and women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform" (Tyson 97).

Questions Feminist Critics

Ask about Literary Text

QHQ Feminism

Q: Why do I question the reliability of the feminist theory reading?

Q: Who wrote this and what is their ground for their examples in the beginning?

Q: On page 3 (85) of Feminist Literary Criticism, isn‘t it a hasty generalization to say that ―Patriarchy is thus, by definition, sexist, which means it promotes the belief that women are innately inferior to men‖? That is a serious accusation to make of a social system.

What is the extent of sexism in a patriarchal system?

Q: How much of the gender roles prescribed for men and

women are based on biology and how much is sociology?

There have been changes in our society but has anything

changed as much as we think it has? Why does sexism

persist in our society?

Q. So then, if the concept of gender is categorized as

either masculine or feminine, where do the people with

fluctuating gender identities fit into the overall scheme?

Q: Why isn‘t this kind of material introduced much earlier?

―Parturition‖ A Definition/An

UnderstandingI didn‘t know what ―parturition‖ meant, and so I looked it up quickly before I read the rest of the poem. ―Relating to or used in the process of giving birth,‖ said my dictionary. Okay thanks, I said—so, giving birth. And then I read the poem. At the end I came back to the title, and thought: no, it‘s parturition—that‘s more correct; the poem could not be called ―birthing,‖ because it would feel wrong. Why, though?

The word ‗parturition‘ sounds stronger. It sounds painful and overwhelming. It sounds like a loss, a parting, a partition. It sounds difficult and intense. Birthing, is identical, according to my dictionary—identical describing phrase, even: ―relating to or used in the process of giving birth‖—but it‘s not, the same. We celebrate birth-days with easy celebration. The word, too, is never-ending, with the –ing continuing the act indefinitely—where in the poem, the woman experiences the somewhat delirious quiet after the labor as well. We use the word birth in normal, commonplace vocabulary; because of that familiarity alone, it makes the title softer, less demanding consideration. Birthing also has a nicer sound, it‘s not as cutting, and it feels like it focuses more on the child—like saying a mother ―gives birth‖—the focus is off the woman as a being, places her into the selflessly-giving/providing role, not a person as much as a means for baby.

What is this poem about?

The first line says that ―I am the centre/ Of a circle of pain/ Exceeding its

boundaries.‖ I think that indicates that the narrator is in great pain and it could

be because she is in labor. The pain she says has ―no escape.‖ How would

anyone be able to escape giving birth unless she was to die? She cannot!

When she says ―I am climbing a distorted mountain of agony… I reach the

summit / And gradually subside into anticipation of / Repose / Which never

comes / For another mountain is growing up‖ is a fantastic description of the

peaks of contractions.

QHQ: ―Parturition‖

• When the baby finally is out—head and then shoulders, is the

literal, immediate-scene of the ―climbing a distorted mountain of agony…

another mountain is growing up,‖ and since the head is out but the body is not.

And although the mother is exhausted (―the exhaustion of control,‖ an odd

phrase…) and is seeking a rest, she‘s ―goaded by the unavoidable / I must

traverse / traversing myself‖… So: when the baby is finally out, ―the gurgling of

a crucified wild beast [adorable baby] / Comes from so far away [the breast

just below her own head] / And the foam [of her milk] on the stretched muscles

of a mouth / Is no part of myself.‖

• Loy also describes […] an ―open window‖ and outside a painter is singing

about how girls are ―tid‘ly did‘ly‖. Almost teasing. The […] window is

significant because it is for looking out or looking in. A door is used to exit or

enter. But, through a window people generally only look. […] The female

gender role restrictions are being sung through windows.

• At the end I think that the narrator is being very sarcastic and has an irritated

tone. She basically seems to say that the woman serves her husband like he is

the master; yet, God is the one that made them that way. Her tone makes it

seem as though childbirth is another way of serving the men. She says as her

last line to ―Thank God.‖ I think this is very sarcastic because she is saying to

thank God for the way things are.

Form and Punctuation

• Q: What is the deal with the form in Parturition?

• Q: Why are there strange spaces in the ―Parturition‖?

• Q: Why is there no punctuation in Mina Loy‘s

Parturition?

• Q: How does the form of the poem reflect the overall

theme of the poem?

―Feminist Manifesto‖ and ―Parturition‖

How are these two texts [―Feminist Manifesto‖ and ―Parturition‖] related?

Q: Does Mina Loy‘s ―Feminist Manifesto‖ display the ideals shown in ―Parturition‖?

Q: Why then, if Mina Loy wholeheartedly believes in these values, does she insist on using such a multitude of negative words in her writing?

Q: Why would Mina Loy be so harsh with something like feminism when females are her target audience?

At the University of Pennsylvania, he

met William Carlos Williams and

Hilda Doolittle (both later to become,

with Pound, prominent modernist

poets).

Pound received his master‘s degree

from the University of Pennsylvania

in 1906.

He took a job teaching at Wabash

College in Indiana. This teaching

experience, however, was a disaster

for the bohemian Pound, for Indiana

society was deeply conservative. He

was fired before the school year

ended for having a woman in his

room without a chaperone.

Ezra Pound was born October 30,

1885, in Hailey, Idaho.

While in high school, Pound

studied Latin, and this study

moved him to concentrate on

poetry and literary

history.

Disgusted by America’s conservatism, Pound resolved to go to Europe to become a

poet. He ended up on London, where he quickly became a member of a number of

literary circles. Within a few years, Pound became the center of a nascent literary

movement, imagism, and through the sheer force of his will also became one of

London’s most important literary figures. Pound was driven by the dictum “make it

new.”

Pound’s life grew significantly more difficult and complicated after his move to

Italy, for he stopped seeing himself as a poet and began to feel that he was a public

intellectual, a sage, a man who should be consulted by world leaders. He began to

study history and economics, attempting to discover a solution for the problems of the

world. At this time, he also grew increasingly attracted to Italy’s fascist leader, Benito

Mussolini, and began to manifest a deep anti-Semitism. For twenty years, Pound

continued to write cantos, but he also spoke more and more loudly against

Roosevelt, against capitalism, and in favor of fascism.

When the United States joined World War II in 1941, Pound tried to return to his

home country but was not allowed to do so. To support himself and his family during

the war, Pound volunteered to do radio broadcasts for Italian state radio. In

response, the U.S. government indicted Pound for treason in 1943, and, after Italy

fell, Pound was arrested, held in a cage near Pisa, and returned to Washington to face

trial.

Pound escaped the execution that could have been his fate when the judge found him

mentally unfit to face trial, but he was sentenced to an indefinite period in a mental

hospital. He spent thirteen years in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., refusing

to disavow his beliefs. Even incarcerated, he continued to produce poetry, and even

won the prestigious Bollingen Library of Congress Award for his 1949 volume The Pisan

Cantos, composed while Pound was held prisoner by the U.S. Army. Finally, in

1958, Pound was released from the hospital and returned to Italy.

Pound lived the remainder of his life quietly. Settling in Venice, Pound initially continued

to work and write, but, in the early 1960s, he fell into a deep depression and an

unbreakable silence. Young poets such as Allen Ginsberg visited him, but Pound would

not speak. Near the end of his life, largely because of the tireless efforts of his publisher

James Laughlin, Pound finally began to enjoy the honors that had been denied him for

decades and also began earning enough money from his poetry to live on. He died in

Venice

HOMEWORK

Read New Criticism

Read: Pound “In a Station of the Metro.”Post #10 Write a short paragraph about how you

might apply feminist theory to Trifles, My Antonia,

or “Parturition.”

Post #11: QHQ on “New Criticism” or on “In a

Station of the Metro” Or, discuss your thoughts on

imagism