Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: Visions and Re-Visions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reconsider some of the main aspects of the development of feminist literary theory and criticism. In the introductory part of the paper, we will remind the readers of one of the key moments in its development – the moment when Barthes declared the death of the author and caused the further shaping in the development of feminist literary theory and criticism. After that, the focus will be on the last two decades of the twentieth century (important to the development of this theory, when, according to Moi (2009), the interest of critics in women and creativity, women and writing, women and the creation of art, became intense) when the greatest development within the Anglo-American and French context in the study of this theory occurred. In conclusion, we will revisit this theory’s relationship to literature, concentrating on texts from the anthologies and collections of papers published in this issue, with a special focus on the Cambridge Companion to Feminist Literary Theory (2006). This book offers us a referent framework for the analysis of this relationship, which is the focus of this short and unpretentious paper.

Keywords: feminist literary theory, criticism, poststructuralism, text, context, French theory, Anglo-American theory.