Introduction to Theory of Literature

Lecture Details

Introduction to Theory of Literature (ENGL 300)

In this lecture on feminist criticism, Professor Paul Fry uses Virginia Woolfs A Room of Ones Own as a lens to and commentary on the flourishing of feminist criticism in the twentieth century. The structure and rhetoric of A Room of Ones Own is extensively analyzed, as are its core considerations of female novelists such as Austen, Eliot, and the Brontës. The works of major feminist critics, such as Ann Douglas, Mary Ellman, Kate Millett, Elaine Showalter, and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, are mentioned. The logocentric approach to gender theory, specifically the task of defining female language as something different and separate from male language, is considered alongside Woolfs own endorsement of literary and intellectual androgyny.

0000 - Chapter 1. Transition into Feminist Theory Tony the Tow Truck
0635 - Chapter 2. Overlapping Identities
1529 - Chapter 3. The Structure of A Room of Ones Own
2232 - Chapter 4. Feminist Criticism and A Room of Ones Own
2823 - Chapter 5. Womens Language and the Male Sentence
3918 - Chapter 6. Complications and Implications of Classical Feminism

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website httpopen.yale.educourses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.