The primary goal of Elaine Showalter's "Towards a Feminist Poetics" is to establish a framework for analyzing women's literature by advocating for a distinct "female" perspective, rejecting traditional male-centric literary criticism and instead focusing on the unique experiences and voices of female writers, thereby creating a new model for feminist literary analysis based on female experience rather than male-dominated traditions.
Key points about Showalter's essay:
Three phases of women's writing:
Showalter divides the history of women's writing into three phases: "feminine" (imitation of male literary norms), "feminist" (protest against male dominance), and "female" (development of a distinct female literary aesthetic).
"Gynocritics":
She coined the term "gynocritics" to describe this new approach to analyzing women's literature from a female perspective.
Criticizing male-centric criticism:
Showalter argues that traditional literary criticism is often biased towards male authors and experiences, neglecting the richness and complexity of women's writing.
