Role of Women Novelists and Feminist Criticism in English Literature with Special Reference to Toni Morrison’s the Bluest Eyes

Abstract

Feminist literary criticism, arising in conjunction with sociopolitical feminism, critiques patriarchal language and literature by exposing how these reflect masculine ideology. It examines gender politics in works and traces the subtle construction of masculinity and femininity and their relative status within works. There were many women novelists as well as there was Feminist Criticism due to Feminism prevalent in the society. In the West, the second wave of feminism prompted a general revelation of women's historical contributions, and various academic sub-disciplines, such as women's history and women's writing, developed in response to the belief that women's lives and contributions have been underrepresented as areas of scholarly interest. Much of this early period of feminist literary scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women. Studies like Dale Spender's Mothers of the Novel (1986) and Jane Spencer's The Rise of the Woman Novelist (1986) were ground-breaking. Keywords: Feminist criticism, Feminism, Literary theory, Philosophical Discourse.