Feminist Literary CriticismPapers

This provocative 2000 article challenges the state of contemporary feminist theory, arguing that while feminist epistemology, methodology and ethics have undergone revolutionary transformation, feminist theory remains trapped within parallel structures to mainstream/malestream social theory. Stanley and Wise call for a fundamental feminist autocritique and the development of feminist metatheory.

This 2000 article by Alison Assiter develops a distinctive approach to feminist epistemology centered on the concepts of 'emancipatory values' and 'epistemic communities.' Assiter argues that knowledge production is fundamentally shaped by the values of the communities in which it occurs, and that feminist epistemology should focus on creating communities whose values promote emancipation rather than oppression. The paper offers a modernist feminist epistemology that is collective rather than individualist, value-centered rather than value-neutral.

This essay explores the relationship between rational argumentation and narrative knowledge in feminist theory, questioning traditional oppositions between theory and story, abstract and concrete, argument and narration. Felski argues that narrative is not the opposite of rationality but an important mode of feminist knowledge production, and the two should be seen as complementary rather than opposed.

A groundbreaking exploration of how maternal embodiment, particularly breastfeeding, transforms academic writing and knowledge production. Bartlett develops an 'epistemology of breasts' that challenges traditional boundaries between personal experience and scholarly practice.

This essay analyzes Dorothy Allison's short story collection 'Trash' to explore how 'sexual outlaws' use truth discourse to establish legitimate subject positions within lesbian feminism. Kennedy examines how sexually radical lesbians challenge cultural feminism's normative definitions of lesbian identity and the complex intersections of class, sexuality, and truth.

This groundbreaking 1975 essay introduces the concept of 'écriture féminine' (feminine writing), calling for women to reclaim their bodies and desires through writing. Cixous reinterprets the myth of Medusa, transforming her from a monstrous figure into a symbol of feminine power and creativity, challenging patriarchal language systems and advocating for the revolutionary potential of women's writing.