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MEETINGS:

We have to call meetings to discuss on the assignments. We attended the following meetings.

The first group meeting was held on 10 August 2003 in TSC at 11:30 am.

Agenda:
Discussion on Duties and Responsibilities of the Group Members.
Discussion on the Basic Points of Post Colonial Literature

The second group meeting was held on 11 August 2003 in Room no.121 at 11:00 am.
Agenda:
Discussion on Vocabulary :ism or Concept

Our meetings were held on at the middle of September, October, November and December.

In 2004 we attended meeting on 10 January to discuss on the 2nd chapter summary of Ashcroft’s The Empire Writes Back.

PRESENTATION:
FEMINISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM
Presenter: Istiaque Hasan
GC Orion (Student Group 29th batch)
Presented on August 27, 2003

Patriarchy

The ‘patriarch’ was “the father and ruler of a family or tribe”(OED) and metaphorically , of the church. Patriarchy does then refer to the authority the patriarch enjoys. In feminism, the term has varied extension. Wile Juliet Michell sees patriarchy only as the rule of the father over his wife, immature children , and nay other household dependants, Kate Millet uses patriarchy to refer to “an over-arching system of male dominance” (Andermahr).Feminism argues that Western society is peculiarly patriarchal; that it is male-centred and controlled. The society, its system and its discourse are organized in such a way so as to systematically subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social, legal, linguistic and artistic.

Sex and Gender

Sex refers to the biological markers of sexual difference. According to certain physical organs and the function in producing young, humans and animals are divided into two groups--- male and female, hence two sexes--male and female. Sex thus stands for the physical distinction between male and female.
Gender, on the other hand, is defined in opposition to sex. The term gender is used for the “social , cultural and historical construction of sexual difference” (Brooker). Early second-wave feminists consolidated the distinction between sex and gender to differentiate the socio-cultural meanings (‘masculinity’ and ‘feminity’) from the base of biological sex differences (‘male’ and ‘female’). Gender is then a politicized product of patriarchal culture, falsely equating sexual differences-—male and female with characteristic differences—masculinity and feminity. In the words of Simon De Beavoir: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. … It is civilization as a whole that produces this creature… which is described as feminine.” By this cultural process, ‘male’ is assumed to be the physically strong and therefore ‘masculinity’ is with the world of labour, sport, and physical combat and are active in public domain; ‘female is considered to be physically weak; ‘feminity’ therefore refers to passivity; her chief concern is home, and her body determines her roles as mother and objects of male desire. To put it neatly, after the way Abrams does: masculine is invariably identified as active, domination, adventurous rational, creative; feminine by systematic opposition of such traits, is identified as passive, acquiescent, timid, emotional and conventional. This hierarchical binary opposition of male/female not only reinforces male authority over women but also perpetuates essentialist view of male superiority and female inferiority. Now, feminism argues that if gender is understood as socially and culturally defined and constructed, then it can be systematically ‘un-defined’ or re/deconstructed. Obviously reconstructing gender is one of the chief issues of feminism.

Feminism

In common sense description, feminism refers to the advocacy of the establishment of the political, social and economic rights of women as well as recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements. As such, feminism dates back to the late eighteenth century, marked by works like Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1972) and John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869). It is, however, in the later half of the twentieth century that feminism appeared as a concerted movement.

Feminist Criticism

Feminism is a relatively simple, move, with its belief and aim that women should have the same rights, power and opportunities as men. In the twentieth century it assumed a political stature and started dealing with complex issues by critiquing patriarchal assumptions and practices. While Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) explores how patriarchy hinders development of female intellect, Simon de Beavoir’s The Second Sex (1949) focuses how women have culturally and intellectually been identified as “Other” to man who is identified as the dominating “Subject”. It was, however, with ‘the women’s liberation movement’ occurred in the late 1960s and the 1970s that feminist criticism started as a conscious movement. Feminist criticism not simply advocates equal rights of women; it rather chiefly attempts at exploring the reasons behind this inequality, and offers ways to resist patriarchal assumptions and domination to reinforce female identity.
Since feminist criticism does not follow any unitary theory and therefore widely varied, it might be a wise idea to summarize certain assumptions and concepts that feminist criticisms share in common:

Western civilization is pervasively patriarchal. Through the myths and discourse, the female has been identified as an Other, a kind of non-man because of her lack of male organ, hence inferior; on the other hand, male characteristics are taken to have “achieved the most important scientific and technical inventions and the major works of civilization and culture.”
Gender, unlike sex, is largely a construction of culture based on patriarchal values.
Through systematic education and practice, women themselves are taught to internalize “patriarchal ideology (that is, the conscious and unconscious presuppositions of male superiority).” Thus they are “conditioned” to maintain their own derogatory status, “cooperate in their own subordination,” and perpetuate male dominance.
As the English speaking feminists point out, male bias is encoded even in the very linguistic convention. So the word “man” is used to refer to both male and humankind; the “chairman” is used for people of both sexes; “he” is used to refer back to sex-neutral like “God”, “child”, “poet” etc.
Great literary pieces such as Oedipus, Doctor Faustus, and Hamlet, focus on male protagonists “who embody masculine traits”. Female characters, in most cases, are marginal and subordinate.
In literature, myths, and other discourses, written chiefly by men, women are presented through some stereotyped images: they are either Madonna or Eve.
Most discourses, be religious or philosophical or literary, are implicitly addressed to male readers, reducing female reader to an alien position; when she tries to appropriate herself to the narration and the narrator, she is unconsciously made to assume male values and assumptions.

ather than simply critiquing patriarchal tradition, feminist criticism also tries to offer a positive, creative way of approaching the problem. This includes among others (i) Exploring and representing the female world from female’s point of view; (ii) Constructing a new canon of women’s writing by rewriting the history of the novel and of poetry in such a way that neglected women writers were given new prominence; and (iii) Gynocriticism tries to develop a female framework for critiquing and evaluating writings of women.

Relation between feminism and postcolonialism

It is interesting to locate how feminism and postcolonialism relate to each other in many ways.

? First both feminism and postcolonialism examine the ways the subject is represented in discourses of the dominant group. Through this exploration, both schools attempt at resisting false and stereotyped representation by subverting the very codes of the dominant group.
? Second, both feminism and postcoonialism is concerned with the ways language is used and exploited by the dominant group to ensure dominance over the subject.
? Third, the texts of feminist theory and that of postcolonial theory agree obn many aspects other theory of identity, of difference, of otherness.
? Fourth, both schools of criticism examine the power relations prevalent in a society that sustains the hegemony and enforces dominance.
The list could be made longer. This, however, does not conceal the conflict the theorists of both schools are concerned with. In fact, there have been active debates in a number of colonized societies about which is more important political factor in the life of a woman of that society: gender or colonial oppression? Unfortunately, the Anglo-French feminism has placed little or no attention to the unique condition of a woman in a colonized society which is termed as ‘double colonization’.

Double Colonization of Woman

The society where a woman lives is invariably a patriarchal society, dominated by male assumptions. With a black woman in the colonized Nigeria, for example, this condition is more pathetic. While the women are politically subordinated to and exploited by the white colonizers, their rights have also been violated by the black male within their own communities. Thus these women experience a traumatic life of being doubly colonized, and are often puzzled about which form of oppression is to challenge first.
(This piece is a joint venture and does not claim to be an original writing)

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		For best view, u need FONT GEORGIA
	MEETINGS: We have to call meetings to discuss on the assignments. We attended the following meetings. The first group meeting was held on 10 August 2003 in TSC at 11:30 am. Agenda: Discussion on Duties and Responsibilities of the Group Members. Discussion on the Basic Points of Post Colonial Literature The second group meeting was held on 11 August 2003 in Room no.121 at 11:00 am. Agenda: Discussion on Vocabulary :ism or Concept Our meetings were held on at the middle of September, October, November and December. In 2004 we attended meeting on 10 January to discuss on the 2nd chapter summary of Ashcroft’s The Empire Writes Back. PRESENTATION: FEMINISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM Presenter: Istiaque Hasan GC Orion (Student Group 29th batch) Presented on August 27, 2003 Patriarchy The ‘patriarch’ was “the father and ruler of a family or tribe”(OED) and metaphorically , of the church. Patriarchy does then refer to the authority the patriarch enjoys. In feminism, the term has varied extension. Wile Juliet Michell sees patriarchy only as the rule of the father over his wife, immature children , and nay other household dependants, Kate Millet uses patriarchy to refer to “an over-arching system of male dominance” (Andermahr).Feminism argues that Western society is peculiarly patriarchal; that it is male-centred and controlled. The society, its system and its discourse are organized in such a way so as to systematically subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social, legal, linguistic and artistic. Sex and Gender Sex refers to the biological markers of sexual difference. According to certain physical organs and the function in producing young, humans and animals are divided into two groups--- male and female, hence two sexes--male and female. Sex thus stands for the physical distinction between male and female. Gender, on the other hand, is defined in opposition to sex. The term gender is used for the “social , cultural and historical construction of sexual difference” (Brooker). Early second-wave feminists consolidated the distinction between sex and gender to differentiate the socio-cultural meanings (‘masculinity’ and ‘feminity’) from the base of biological sex differences (‘male’ and ‘female’). Gender is then a politicized product of patriarchal culture, falsely equating sexual differences-—male and female with characteristic differences—masculinity and feminity. In the words of Simon De Beavoir: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. … It is civilization as a whole that produces this creature… which is described as feminine.” By this cultural process, ‘male’ is assumed to be the physically strong and therefore ‘masculinity’ is with the world of labour, sport, and physical combat and are active in public domain; ‘female is considered to be physically weak; ‘feminity’ therefore refers to passivity; her chief concern is home, and her body determines her roles as mother and objects of male desire. To put it neatly, after the way Abrams does: masculine is invariably identified as active, domination, adventurous rational, creative; feminine by systematic opposition of such traits, is identified as passive, acquiescent, timid, emotional and conventional. This hierarchical binary opposition of male/female not only reinforces male authority over women but also perpetuates essentialist view of male superiority and female inferiority. Now, feminism argues that if gender is understood as socially and culturally defined and constructed, then it can be systematically ‘un-defined’ or re/deconstructed. Obviously reconstructing gender is one of the chief issues of feminism. Feminism In common sense description, feminism refers to the advocacy of the establishment of the political, social and economic rights of women as well as recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements. As such, feminism dates back to the late eighteenth century, marked by works like Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1972) and John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869). It is, however, in the later half of the twentieth century that feminism appeared as a concerted movement. Feminist Criticism Feminism is a relatively simple, move, with its belief and aim that women should have the same rights, power and opportunities as men. In the twentieth century it assumed a political stature and started dealing with complex issues by critiquing patriarchal assumptions and practices. While Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) explores how patriarchy hinders development of female intellect, Simon de Beavoir’s The Second Sex (1949) focuses how women have culturally and intellectually been identified as “Other” to man who is identified as the dominating “Subject”. It was, however, with ‘the women’s liberation movement’ occurred in the late 1960s and the 1970s that feminist criticism started as a conscious movement. Feminist criticism not simply advocates equal rights of women; it rather chiefly attempts at exploring the reasons behind this inequality, and offers ways to resist patriarchal assumptions and domination to reinforce female identity. Since feminist criticism does not follow any unitary theory and therefore widely varied, it might be a wise idea to summarize certain assumptions and concepts that feminist criticisms share in common: Western civilization is pervasively patriarchal. Through the myths and discourse, the female has been identified as an Other, a kind of non-man because of her lack of male organ, hence inferior; on the other hand, male characteristics are taken to have “achieved the most important scientific and technical inventions and the major works of civilization and culture.” Gender, unlike sex, is largely a construction of culture based on patriarchal values. Through systematic education and practice, women themselves are taught to internalize “patriarchal ideology (that is, the conscious and unconscious presuppositions of male superiority).” Thus they are “conditioned” to maintain their own derogatory status, “cooperate in their own subordination,” and perpetuate male dominance. As the English speaking feminists point out, male bias is encoded even in the very linguistic convention. So the word “man” is used to refer to both male and humankind; the “chairman” is used for people of both sexes; “he” is used to refer back to sex-neutral like “God”, “child”, “poet” etc. Great literary pieces such as Oedipus, Doctor Faustus, and Hamlet, focus on male protagonists “who embody masculine traits”. Female characters, in most cases, are marginal and subordinate. In literature, myths, and other discourses, written chiefly by men, women are presented through some stereotyped images: they are either Madonna or Eve. Most discourses, be religious or philosophical or literary, are implicitly addressed to male readers, reducing female reader to an alien position; when she tries to appropriate herself to the narration and the narrator, she is unconsciously made to assume male values and assumptions. ather than simply critiquing patriarchal tradition, feminist criticism also tries to offer a positive, creative way of approaching the problem. This includes among others (i) Exploring and representing the female world from female’s point of view; (ii) Constructing a new canon of women’s writing by rewriting the history of the novel and of poetry in such a way that neglected women writers were given new prominence; and (iii) Gynocriticism tries to develop a female framework for critiquing and evaluating writings of women. Relation between feminism and postcolonialism It is interesting to locate how feminism and postcolonialism relate to each other in many ways. ? First both feminism and postcolonialism examine the ways the subject is represented in discourses of the dominant group. Through this exploration, both schools attempt at resisting false and stereotyped representation by subverting the very codes of the dominant group. ? Second, both feminism and postcoonialism is concerned with the ways language is used and exploited by the dominant group to ensure dominance over the subject. ? Third, the texts of feminist theory and that of postcolonial theory agree obn many aspects other theory of identity, of difference, of otherness. ? Fourth, both schools of criticism examine the power relations prevalent in a society that sustains the hegemony and enforces dominance. The list could be made longer. This, however, does not conceal the conflict the theorists of both schools are concerned with. In fact, there have been active debates in a number of colonized societies about which is more important political factor in the life of a woman of that society: gender or colonial oppression? Unfortunately, the Anglo-French feminism has placed little or no attention to the unique condition of a woman in a colonized society which is termed as ‘double colonization’. Double Colonization of Woman The society where a woman lives is invariably a patriarchal society, dominated by male assumptions. With a black woman in the colonized Nigeria, for example, this condition is more pathetic. While the women are politically subordinated to and exploited by the white colonizers, their rights have also been violated by the black male within their own communities. Thus these women experience a traumatic life of being doubly colonized, and are often puzzled about which form of oppression is to challenge first. (This piece is a joint venture and does not claim to be an original writing)