Elaine Showalter (1941- ) is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics. Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ...

She is well known and respected in both academic and popular cultural milieus. She has written and edited numerous books and articles focussed on a variety of subjects, from feminist literary criticism to fashion, sometimes sparking widespread controversy, especially with her work on modern illnesses. Showalter has been a television critic for People magazine and a commentator on BBC radio and television. Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or by the politics of feminism more broadly. ... People, a weekly magazine of celebrity and popular culture news, debuted on February 27, 1974. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...

Showalter is a specialist in Victorian literature and the Fin-de-Siecle (turn of the 19th century). Her most innovative work in this field is in madness and hysteria in literature, specifically in women’s writing and in the portrayal of female characters. Charles Dickens is still one of the best known English writers of any era. ... For the album, see Hysteria (album) Hysteria is a diagnostic label applied to a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. ...

She is the Avalon Foundation Professor Emerita. Her academic honours include a Guggenheim fellowship (1977-78) and a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship (1981-82). She is also the past-president of the Modern Language Association. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Fifth Edition The Modern Language Association of America (often abbreviated MLA) is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of literature and literary criticism. ...

Showalter's best known works are “Toward a Feminist Poetics” (1979), The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture (1830-1980) (1985), Sexual Anarchy: Gender at Culture at the Fin de Siecle (1990), Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997), and Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001).

Life

She was born Elaine Cottler on January 21, 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Showalter pursued an academic career against the wishes of her parents. She attended Bryn Mawr, earning a Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree at Brandeis, and a PhD in 1970 at the University of California-Davis. Her first academic appointment was at Douglass College, Rutgers. She joined Princeton University's faculty in 1984, and took early retirement in 2003. Neither Rutgers nor Princeton hired women before she began her teaching career. Boston is a town and small port c. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 44th 10,555 mi²; 27,360 km² 183 mi; 295 km 113 mi; 182 km 13. ... Brynmawr (Bryn-mawr) is a market town in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, traditional county of Brecknockshire, mid Wales. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... PhD usually refers to the academic title Doctor of Philosophy PhD can also refer to the manga Phantasy Degree This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... The University of California, Davis, commonly abbreviated to UC Davis or UCD is one of the ten University of California campuses. ... Rutgers University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is located in New Brunswick, Piscataway, Camden and Newark, New Jersey. ... Princeton University, incorporated as The Trustees of Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution to conduct higher education in the United States. ...

Her father was in the wool business and her mother was a housewife. At age 21, Showalter was disowned by her parents for marrying outside of the Jewish faith. Her husband, English Showalter, is a Yale-educated professor of 18th century French literature. The Showalters have two children, Michael Showalter, an actor and comedian, and Vinca Showalter LaFleur, a professional speechwriter. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Michael Showalter (born June 17, 1970 in Princeton, New Jersey to an Episcopalian father and a Jewish mother) is an American actor best known as one-third of the protagonist trio of Stella. ...

Critical importance

Showalter’s book Inventing Herself (2001), a survey of feminist icons, seems to be the culmination of a long-time interest in communicating the importance of understanding feminist tradition. Showalter’s early essays and editorial work in the late 1970s and the 1980s survey the history of the feminist tradition within the “wilderness” of literary theory and criticism. Working in the field of feminist literary theory and criticism, which was just emerging as a serious scholarly pursuit in universities in the 1970s, Showalter's writing reflects a conscious effort to convey the importance of mapping her discipline’s past in order to both ground it in substantive theory, and amass a knowledge base that will be able to inform a path for future feminist academic pursuit. Suffrage parade in New York City on May 6, 1912 The history of feminism reaches far back before the 18th century, but the seeds of the feminist movement were planted during the latter portion of that century. ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ...

In “Toward a Feminist Poetics” Showalter traces the history of women's literature, suggesting that it can be divided into three phases:

1. Feminine: In the Feminine phase (1840-1880), “women wrote in an effort to equal the intellectual achievements of the male culture, and internalized its assumptions about female nature” (New, 137).
   
2. Feminist: The Feminist phase (1880-1920) was characterized by women’s writing that protested against male standards and values, and advocated women’s rights and values, including a demand for autonomy.
   
3. Female: The Female phase (1920- ) is one of self-discovery. Showalter says, “women reject both imitation and protest – two forms of dependency – and turn instead to female experience as the source of an autonomous art, extending the feminist analysis of culture to the forms and techniques of literature” (New, 139).

Rejecting both imitation and protest, Showalter advocates approaching feminist criticism from a cultural perspective in the current Female phase, rather than from perspectives that traditionally come from an androcentric perspective like psychoanalytic and biological theories, for example. Feminists in the past have worked within these traditions by revising and criticizing female representations, or lack thereof, in the male traditions (i.e. in the Feminine and Feminist phases). In her essay “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (1981), Showalter says, “A cultural theory acknowledges that there are important differences between women as writers: class, race nationality, and history are literary determinants as significant as gender. Nonetheless, women’s culture forms a collective experience within the cultural whole, an experience that binds women writers to each other over time and space” (New, 260).

Showalter does not advocate replacing psychoanalysis, for example, with cultural anthropology; rather, she suggests that approaching women’s writing from a cultural perspective is one among many valid perspectives that will uncover female traditions. However, cultural anthropology and social history are especially fruitful because they “can perhaps offer us a terminology and a diagram of women’s cultural situation” (New, 266). Showalter’s caveat is that feminist critics must use cultural analyses as ways to understand what women write, rather than to dictate what they ought to write (New, 266). This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Cultural anthropology, also called social anthropology or socio-cultural anthropology, forms one of four commonly-recognized fields of anthropology, the holistic study of humanity. ... Social history is an area of historical study considered by some to be a social science that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends. ...

However isolationist-like Showalter’s perspective may sound at first, she does not advocate a separation of the female tradition from the male tradition. She argues that women must work both inside and outside the male tradition simultaneously (New, 264). Showalter says the most constructive approach to future feminist theory and criticism lies in a focus on nurturing a new feminine cultural perspective within a feminist tradition that at the same time exists within the male tradition, but on which it is not dependant and to which it is not answerable.

Gynocritics

Showalter coined the term “gynocritics” to describe literary criticism based in a feminine perspective. Probably the best description Showalter gives of gynocritics is in “Toward a Feminist Poetics”: “In contrast to [an] angry or loving fixation on male literature, the program of gynocritics is to construct a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature, to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt male models and theories. Gynocritics begins at the point when we free ourselves from the linear absolutes of male literary history, stop trying to fit women between the lines of the male tradition, and focus instead on the newly visible world of female culture” (New, 131). This does not mean that the goal of gynocritics is to erase the differences between male and female writing; gynocritics is not “on a pilgrimage to the promised land in which gender would lose its power, in which all texts would be sexless and equal, like angels” (New, 266). Rather gynocritics aims to understand the specificity of women’s writing not as a product of sexism but as a fundamental aspect of female reality. The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ...

Showalter acknowledges the difficulty of “[d]efining the unique difference of women’s writing” which she says is “a slippery and demanding task” in “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (New, 249). She says that gynocritics may never succeed in understanding the special differences of women’s writing, or realize a distinct female literary tradition. But, with grounding in theory and historical research, Showalter sees gynocriticism as a way to “learn something solid, enduring, and real about the relation of women to literary culture” (New, 249).

Criticism and controversy

Feminist theory and criticism

Probably Showalter’s harshest critic in terms of her feminist literary theories is the Duke-University based Toril Moi who, in her 1985 book Sexual/Textual Politics, accused Showalter of having a limited, essentialist view of women. Moi particularly criticized Showalter’s ideas regarding the Female phase, and its notions of a woman's singular autonomy and necessary search inward for a female identity. In a predominantly poststructuralist era that proposes that meaning is contextual and historical, and that identity is socially and linguistically constructed, Moi claimed that there is no fundamental female self. Essentialism is the belief and practice centered on a philosophical claim that for any specific kind of entity it is at least theoretically possible to specify a finite list of characteristics, all of which any entity must have to belong to the group defined. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist or linguistician. ...

According to Moi, the problem of equality in literary theory does not lie in the fact that the literary canon is fundamentally male and unrepresentative of female tradition, rather the problem lies in the fact that a canon exists at all. Moi argues that a feminine literary canon would be no less oppressive than the male canon because it would necessarily represent a particular socio demographic class of woman; it could not possibly represent all women because female tradition is drastically different depending on class, ethnicity, social values, sexuality, etc. A female consciousness cannot exist for the same reasons. Moi objects to what she sees as an essentialist position – that is, she objects to any determination of identity based on gender. Moi’s criticism was influential as part of a larger debate between essentialist and postmodern feminist theorists at the time. In the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. ...

Hysteria and modern maladies

Showalter’s controversial take on modern maladies like Chronic fatigue syndrome, Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple personality disorder) and Gulf War syndrome in her book Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997) has angered some in the health profession and many who suffer from these illnesses. In May of 1997, Showalter received a threat from a chronic fatigue syndrome activist at a Washington bookstore. Showalter admits to receiving a lot of hate mail, mostly from chronic fatigue syndrome activists, but has not been deterred from her position. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) and various other names, is a syndrome of unknown and possibly multiple etiology, affecting the central nervous system (CNS), immune, and many other systems and organs. ... In psychiatry, dissociative identity disorder (DID) is the current name of the condition formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as multiple personality disorder (MPD) and multiple personality syndrome. ... // Gulf War syndrome (GWS) is the name given to a variety of psychological and physical symptoms, including increases in the rate of immune system disorders and birth defects, reported by veterans of the Gulf War. ... Official language(s) None Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 18th 184,824 km² 385 km 580 km 6. ...

Popular culture

Showalter also came up against criticism in the late 1990s for some of her writing on popular culture that appeared in magazines like People and Vogue. Deirdre English, in the American magazine The Nation, wrote: “As the poststructuralist critique of identity politics took hold over the following decade and more, it became unfashionable, in ideas and in dress, it seemed, for the avant-garde of the female professoriate to identify with either men or women” (English). Deirdre English is the former editor of Mother Jones and author of numerous articles for national publications and television documentaries. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...

English quotes Showalter’s controversial 1997 Vogue article: “’From Mary Wollstonecraft to Naomi Wolf, feminism has often taken a hard line on fashion, shopping, and the whole beauty Monty … But for those of us sisters hiding Welcome to Your Facelift inside The Second Sex, a passion for fashion can sometimes seem a shameful secret life. ... I think it's time I came out of the closet’” (English).

Showalter was reportedly severely criticized by her academic colleagues for coming out in favour of patriarchal symbols of consumer capitalism and traditional femininity. Showalter’s rejoinder was: “We needn't fall into postmodern apocalyptic despair about the futility of political action or the impossibility of theoretical correctness as a pre-condition for action” (English). Patriarchy (from Greek: patria meaning father and arché meaning rule) is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that... Femininity is the set of principles which form a womanly personality. ...

Academic teaching

Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents (2005) was harshly criticized by John Rouse in his review of the book. Rouse lambasted Showalter for what he sees as her “banal” suggestions and mocks that she describes her revelation that literature should be taught as performance, as a “discovery”. Rouse nevertheless gives her credit, albeit condescendingly, for attempting to make literature “more attractive to undergraduates”. Ultimately Rouse criticizes Showalter’s approach to teaching literature: “the work will be flayed, filleted, and displayed as another specimen of the genre” (Rouse).

Summaries of major works

Showalter’s PhD thesis is called The Double Critical Standard: Criticism of Women Writers in England, 1845-1880 (1969) and was later turned into the book A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing (1978), which contains a lengthy and much-discussed chapter on Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) was a British author and feminist, who is considered to be one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ...

The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980 (1985) discusses hysteria, which was once known as the “female malady” and according to Showalter, is called depression today. Showalter demonstrates how cultural ideas about proper feminine behaviour have shaped the definition and treatment of female insanity from the Victorian era to the present. Clinical depression is state of sadness or melancholia that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...

Sexual Anarchy: Gender at Culture at the Fin de Siecle (1990) outlines a history of the sexes and the crises, themes, and problems associated with the battle for sexual supremacy and identity.

In the 1990s, Showalter began writing for popular magazines, bringing her work further into the public sphere than it ever had been during her academic career. Showalter was the television critic for People magazine in 1996. She explains her impetus to do popular cultural work: “I've always really loved popular culture, but it wasn't something serious intellectuals were supposed to be concerned about. … I would like to be able to bring my background and my skills to subjects that do reach a wide audience” (Plett).

In Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997) Showalter argues that hysteria, a medical condition traditionally seen as feminine, has persisted for centuries and is now manifesting itself in cultural phenomena in the forms of socially- and medically-accepted maladies. Psychological and physical effects of unhappy lives become “hysterical epidemics” when popular media saturate the public with paranoid reports and findings, essentially legitimizing, as Showalter calls them, “imaginary illnesses” (Hystories, cover). Showalter says "Hysteria is part of everyday life. It not only survives in the 1990s, but it is more contagious than in the past. Newspapers, magazines, talk shows, self-help books, and of course the Internet ensure that ideas, once planted, manifest themselves internationally as symptoms” (Plett).

Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001) surveys feminist icons since the 18th century, situated mostly in the USA and the United Kingdom. Showalter covers the contributions of predominately intellectuals like Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Camille Paglia. Noting popular media’s importance to the perception of women and feminism today, Showalter also discusses the contributions of popular personalities like Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana. Mary Wollstonecraft; stipple engraving by James Heath, ca. ... Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860–August 17, 1935) was a prominent feminist writer. ... Camille Paglia Camille Anna Paglia (born April 2, 1947 in Endicott, New York) is a social critic, author, and teacher. ... It has been suggested that Legends Weekend be merged into this article or section. ... Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor, née Spencer) (1 July 1961–31 August 1997), commonly, but incorrectly, known as Princess Diana, was for fifteen years the wife of HRH The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. ...

Teaching Literature (2003) is essentially a guide to teaching English literature to undergraduate students in university. Showalter covers approaches to teaching theory, preparing syllabi and talking about taboo subjects among many other practical topics.

Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents (2005) advocates a new perspective on teaching. Showalter says that teaching should be practiced as scholarship, and makes suggestions to professors for teaching literature as performance.

Works Cited

• English, Deirdre. “Wollstonecraft to Lady Di”, The Nation. June 11, 2001. <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010611/english>

• Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics. London: Routledge, 1985.

• Plett, Nicole. “Plague of the Millennium”, PrincetonInfo.com. May 15, 1997. <http://www.princetoninfo.com/hysteria.html>

• Rouse, John. “After Theory, the Next New Thing”. Urbana: Mar 2004.Vol. 66, Iss. 4; pg. 452, 14 pgs

• Showalter, Elaine. A literature of their own: British women novelists from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.

• Showalter, Elaine. “Toward a Feminist Poetics,” Women’s Writing and Writing About Women. London: Croom Helm, 1979.

• Showalter, Elaine. “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness,” Critical Inquiry 8. University of Chicago: Winter, 1981.

• Showalter, Elaine. The female malady: women, madness, and English culture, 1830-1980. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.

• Showalter, Elaine, ed. New feminist criticism: essays on women, literature, and theory. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985

• Showalter, Elaine. Sexual anarchy: gender and culture at the fin de siècle. New York: Viking, 1990.

• Showalter, Elaine. Hystories: hysterical epidemics and modern media. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

• Showalter, Elaine. Inventing herself: claiming a feminist intellectual heritage. New York: Scribner, 2001.

• Showalter, Elaine. Teaching literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

• Showalter, Elaine. Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 2005.