Showalter as a critic

-


Introduction

Elaine Showalter (born 1941) is one of the most influential figures in the field of literary studies, particularly in the development of feminist literary criticism. As a literary critic, cultural historian, and academic, she has reshaped the way literature is studied by centering women’s experiences, voices, and creativity. Her work has opened new paths for understanding the relationship between literature, gender, and culture, making her one of the defining intellectuals of late twentieth and early twenty-first century literary criticism.

Early Life and Education

Elaine Showalter was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1941. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts institution with a strong tradition of feminist thought. Later, she earned her master’s degree from Brandeis University and completed her Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of California, Davis.

Her academic training gave her both the depth of classical literary study and the curiosity to challenge traditional approaches that often excluded or marginalized women writers.

Academic Career

Showalter taught for many years at Rutgers University and later at Princeton University, where she became one of the first women to join the English department. Throughout her career, she combined teaching, scholarship, and public writing, producing works that appealed not only to specialists but also to general readers interested in literature, gender studies, and culture.

She is also known for her work as a cultural critic, writing about topics such as fashion, film, television, and social change, bridging the gap between academic criticism and popular culture.

Major Works

Elaine Showalter’s scholarship is best known for its contribution to feminist literary criticism. Some of her most influential works include:

  • A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontรซ to Lessing (1977) – A groundbreaking book in which Showalter traces the history of British women’s writing. She divides women’s literary history into phases:

    1. The Feminine Phase (1840–1880) – when women wrote under male pseudonyms or conformed to male literary standards.
    2. The Feminist Phase (1880–1920) – when women began to protest their social and literary subordination.
    3. The Female Phase (1920 onwards) – when women developed their own traditions, styles, and voices.
      This framework remains one of the most cited contributions in feminist literary studies.

  • The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830–1980 (1985) – Examines how madness has been associated with women in medical, cultural, and literary discourses. Showalter argues that women were often portrayed as hysterical or mentally unstable, reflecting both gender prejudice and cultural anxieties.

  • Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siรจcle (1990) – Explores how the cultural crisis of the late nineteenth century, marked by debates over sexuality, gender, and morality, influenced literature and art.

  • Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001) – A study of key feminist intellectuals, ranging from writers to activists, who shaped feminist thought.

  • Teaching Literature (2003) – Reflects her engagement with pedagogy and the future of literary studies in the classroom.

Contribution to Feminist Criticism

Elaine Showalter’s contribution to feminist criticism is monumental. She moved beyond the limited focus on how women are represented in literature (feminist reading of texts) and insisted on creating a female literary tradition—the study of women as producers of literature, not just subjects within it.

She distinguished between two approaches to feminist criticism:

  1. Feminist Critique – Analyzing texts written by men to uncover how women are represented, often stereotyped, marginalized, or silenced.
  2. Gynocriticism – A term coined by Showalter, focusing on women as writers: their experiences, themes, styles, and literary history. Gynocriticism seeks to establish a tradition of women’s writing and highlight its uniqueness.

This distinction was revolutionary, as it encouraged scholars to recover forgotten women writers and place them alongside canonical male authors in literary history.

Themes in Her Work

  1. Women’s Literary Tradition – She emphasized the importance of studying women writers as part of a continuous, evolving tradition.
  2. Gender and Madness – She examined how cultural definitions of mental illness were gendered, often used to confine or silence women.
  3. Sexuality and Culture – Her studies explored how shifting attitudes toward sexuality and gender roles influenced literature and society.
  4. Feminist Intellectual Heritage – She worked to establish a genealogy of feminist thinkers, linking past and present voices.
  5. Teaching and Popular Culture – She believed literature should not be confined to elitist circles but connected to everyday cultural practices.

Style and Approach

Showalter’s writing blends academic rigor with accessibility. She often combines literary criticism, cultural history, and feminist theory, making her work interdisciplinary. Her style is both scholarly and engaging, appealing to students, teachers, and general readers alike.

Legacy and Influence

Elaine Showalter has left an enduring legacy in literary and cultural studies. By recovering forgotten women writers, coining the term “gynocriticism,” and redefining feminist literary criticism, she reshaped the canon of English literature.

Her works remain central in courses on feminist theory, Victorian literature, cultural studies, and modern criticism. Moreover, her accessible style has made feminist literary criticism part of wider cultural conversations, influencing both academia and public discourse.

Conclusion

Elaine Showalter is more than a literary critic—she is a pioneer who challenged the male-dominated narratives of literary history and created space for women’s voices to be heard. Through her concepts of feminist critique and gynocriticism, she helped establish women’s literature as a field of study in its own right. Her works continue to inspire scholars and readers, affirming her role as one of the most important feminist intellectuals of our time.

Popular Posts

"Cry, the Peacock": A Detailed Summary and Analysis

-
Introduction Cry, the Peacock is Anita Desai ’s first novel. It was published in 1963. The novel explores a woman’s emotional struggles and her experience of loneliness and despair. The story focuses on Maya, the main character, and her troubled marriage. She suffers from isolation and mental instability. Anita Desai presents the fragility of the human mind and the difficulties of marriage. Brief Summary The novel takes place in post-independence India. However, the story focuses more on personal struggles than political events. Maya is a young woman who lives with her husband, Gautama. Gautama is a practical and intellectual man. He does not show emotions, and he does not understand Maya’s feelings. Maya is sensitive and emotional. She wants love and affection, but Gautama does not give her the attention she needs. Maya feels lonely and neglected. She spends most of her time thinking about her life. She creates fantasies in her mind to escape her loneliness. One important symbol in t...
Read more

Phonetics and Phonology : Definition and difference

-
Phonetics and phonology are two closely related subfields of linguistics that both deal with the sounds of speech, but they focus on different aspects of these sounds. Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, specifically how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It is concerned with the actual sounds themselves—how they are articulated, how they travel through the air as sound waves, and how they are received by the ear and processed by the brain. Phonetics is typically divided into three subfields: 1. Articulatory Phonetics : This branch focuses on the physical production of speech sounds. It looks at the movements of the vocal organs (such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords) and how these movements create different speech sounds. It studies how different places and manners of articulation (e.g., voicing, nasality, consonant types like stops or fricatives) contribute to the production of speech. 2. Acoustic Phonetics : This branch is concerned w...
Read more

Dhwani Theory by Anandvardhana: an introduction

-
Anandvardhana was a Kashmiri court poet and literary critic, honored with the title of Rajanak during King Avantivarman's reign.  Anandavardhana authored the Dhvanyฤloka , or A Light on Suggestion (dhwani), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (dhwani, vyaรฑjanฤ). Anandavardhana is credited with creating the dhwani theory. He wrote that dhwani (meaning sound, or evocation) is the "soul" or "essence" (ฤtman) of poetry (kavya).  Anandavardhana said, "When the poet writes, he creates a eloquent field of emotions." To understand the poetry, the reader or hearer must be on the same wavelength. Important points~ •Dhvani theory is a theory of suggestion that is considered to be the soul of poetry.  •The theory of Dhvani is a major contribution to Sanskrit literary theory.  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that the main goal of good poetry is to evoke a mood or "flavor" (rasa).  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that this...
Read more