ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Gynocriticism is the study of women’s writing. The term gynocritics was coined by Elaine Showalter in 1979 to refer to a form of feminist literary criticism that is concerned with women as writers.

Detailed explanation-2: -Gynocriticism also examines the female struggle for identity and the social construct of gender. According to Elaine Showalter, gynocritics is the study of not only the female as a gender status but also the ‘internalized consciousness’ of the female.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 1914, author George A. Birmingham found American social life to be “gynocentric"; it was “arranged with a view to the convenience and delight of women."

Detailed explanation-4: -Through gynocriticism, Showalter is basically trying to form a female literary canon by studying and bringing into the light of various women writers who have been forgotten under the dominance of western canon that predominately contains male writers.

Detailed explanation-5: -The term Gynocriticism was introduced by influential American feminist and literary critic Elaine Showalter in her essay “Towards a Feminist Poetics“. In a nutshell, the term refers to the kind of critique mechanism that concentrates on female-centric analysis of women’s literature.