Week Four: Theory in literature

In class we looked at various different theories/ 'ways into reading' Shakespeare. The idea is that each of these perspectives offers a specific viewpoint about a play, and has a specific focus through which we can analyse what we read.

* Your task is to choose one of the following theoretical approaches and research it. You must write a 2-3 paragraph summary on that theory.
* You must then write 1 paragraph on how YOU feel that theory can be applied to The Winter's Tale based on what we have seen and discussed.
* Remember whilst knowledge of feminism in general is necessary you are focusing on the literary strand/ theory. The same goes for the other perspectives.

Feminism , Psychoanalysis, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism

Both Reader Response and Marxist theory have been purposely left out on purpose.

Femisist Approach to Shakespeare
Feminism is a movement whose main objective is to establish and defend different rights for women in areas such as politics and economics. Feminists try to provide women with the same opportunities as men, such as the right to vote, or equality in marriage, so as to prevent men from being violent with their wives.
The feminist movement arose mainly during the 19th century, and included middle-class women from Western Europe and North Amercia. However, there were a few women who wrote about women's rights as early as the 15th century.
In The Winter's Tale, there are three, very strong, female characters: Hermione, Paulina and Perdita. Hermione, eve when being trialed for adultery, does not let her emotions take over, and keeps her honour and pride intact. Paulina is not afraid of the king, and tells him exactly what she feels about him even though Leontes tells her she is "worthy to be hanged" and threatens to have her burnt. Perdita is modest, smart, and down to earth. She is the one who tells Florizel they must be careful with their relationship.
We can also take a feminist approach while reading The Winter's Tale because of the way women are treated by the men in the play. Leontes is extremely unfair om Hermione, and missjugdes her, which finally leads to her death. Leontes treats women as property, asking Antigonus why he can't control his wife.

Feminism is described as a movement that aims to establish and protect women’s rights in politics, economics and social matters; overall its goal is to provide women with the same opportunities as men.
The movement has been brought about mainly in Europe and United States, and has its basis in the 18th century, with humanism and the Industrial Revolution. Feminism concerns in the equality of men and women in aspects such as work, education, family roles and more.
Feminism, in view of The Winter’s Tale, comes out in a very strong way. We are presented to female characters that have very tough personalities and create impact on the reader, these are: Hermione (Queen of Sicilia), Perdita (daughter of Sicilia) and Paulina (wife of Antigonus). Hermione has a strongly defined role for a women, and we see this mainly in the trial. She remains calmed and defends herself talking eloquently with powerful words, always remembering that the Emperor of Russia was her father. Perdita is the symbol of youth, and though she “should” be naïve, given her age, she is down-to-earth and very smart, we recognize this in her relationship with Florizel. Lastly, Paulina is courageous and strongly defends and expresses her feelings about the situation happening with Leontes and Hermione.

Feminism- A Winter’s Tale

Feminism is a movement where woman aim at defending equal political, economic, social rights and equal opportunities than men. The rights include legal protection and inclusion in politics, business, and scholarship, and recognition and building of women’s cultures and power. Feminists try to fight against the inequality of woman in the society and for their rights.

In “A Winter’s Tale” feminism is strongly shown by Shakespeare by the personalities of 3 characters: Hermione, Paulina and Perdita. Hermione, wife of Leontes, strongly expresses her feelings and ideas by using strong and efficient phrases which impact the reader and the other characters in the play. Paulina, wife of Antigonus, expresses what she wants and fights for her thoughts, shown in the conflict between Leontes and Hermione, where she criticizes the decisions Leontes takes and confronts him strongly.

In the play there are few characters which strongly represent feminism by defending their thoughts and feeling and fighting for them even when they know that the society is “ruled” by men.

Psychoanalisis is a theory about how the human mind works developed in the 1890's by Sigmund Freud. It consists in analyzing not a person's actions, but looking at their past and how it has affected their personality. Freud starts from the base that we are all born narcisistic, and that with time, this tendency fades as we start to understand the world around us and society becomes a part of our character build-up. He calls the role of society the super-ego, which always aims for perfection and is in contrast to the id, which represents the instincts you are born with and are entirely unconscious. The third aspect tries to apease the id in a realistic way without bringing grief in the long term. This is called the ego, and is basically our personality.

This theory helps us analize and understand King Leontes' reactions and subsequent actions. His jealousy attack reflects great insecurity, but also shows he is a narcisist. This means that he never got over this early stage of life, which brings us to the question, why is this so? Because Leontes is an absolute ruler, he was probably treated as such from a very young age, so he was never greatly influenced by social tendencies.Since Shakespeare lived under an absolute monarchy, he could have been making a political statement by creating a narcisistic monarch, saying that King's are too greatly indulged and this leads them to tyrannical actions and decisions that benefit only themselves.

Feminism
Feminism is a group of different movements that basically aim for equal rights of women compared to men. For example, they look for justice in matters such as sexual harassment, equal pay, voting rights, etc.
The idea of feminism and women’s rights goes back to the 15th century, in France, and since then it has become a major movement throughout the world. Numerous organizations have been created with intentions of defending women, and their members aren’t limited to just women: many men have stated that they agree with feminist ideals.
In The Winter’s Tale
Feminism is represented by the three main female characters: Hermione, Paulina and Perdita, and each have some kind of superiority in their relationships with men.Hermione is somewhat a quite character, but nevertheless she defends herself strongly from Leontes’ accusations. Her participation in the play is most notable in her trial, in Act 3. Perdita, like her mother, is a calmer character, and she doesn’t speak much during the play. In her relationship with Florizel, she is shown as the smarter of the two: she is worried about Polixenes finding out about them, and how they should be cautious. Florizel is shown to be careless, and eventually it’s his fault that they are threatened and punished so harshly by the King.Paulina is different than the other women because she is a very strong character, and being a woman makes it all the more meaningful. She is one of the few characters, if not the only one, who stands up to Leontes: despite being threatened to death, she still manages to stand strong and defend Hermione, and even insult him while doing so. She also has power over her husband Antigonus, something strange in the times when Shakespeare wrote the play, since in marriages men had control.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM
One of the theories explored in Shakespeare can be that of cultural materialism, a theoretical movement that emerged in the early 1980s which analyzes the process by which hegemonic (political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over others) forces in society take over religious and historically important texts with the intention of using them to validate certain values in cultures. In other words, it is “a politicized form of historiography”.
This critical method has four characteristics:
-Historical context: what was happening at the time it was written
-Theoretical method: the inclusion of older theories
-Political commitment: excluding conservative and Christian ideas
-Textual analysis: analysis based on canonical texts which have come to influence culture greatly.
To a cultural materialist, history is what has happened and what is happening now, therefore, they criticize a text not only contextualising it in its own time but with the secession of time as well. Values are changing and being formed all the time, reacting to the material world around us and challenging dominant ideologies; cultural materialism embraces change and gives us changing perspectives based on what we chose to suppress or reveal in readings from the past.
In Shakespeare, some of the aspects analyzed would be Elizabethan drama in its own time and how it has changed with the passing of it. In The Winter’s Tale, we can criticize how both kings abuse their power; how the women, bound by a repressive and dominant ideology, are considered inferior to men; and how loyal subjects, such as Camilo and Antigonus, struggle with loyalty and their morals.

Feminism is amovement that seeks to establish and defend equal social, political, and economic rights for women. Its main objective is to achieve a society in which ther rights of men and women are equal.
Even though this movement is centered on the idea of women having less rights, there are alos some Feminists that consider that gender roles are harmfull for both men and women, which is one of the reasons why there are also male Feminists.
Also Feminism is very controversial in some areas because it coes totally against cultural and religious traditions which are hundreds of years old.

Feminism on A Winter's Tale is shows mainly by 3 characters: Paulina, Hermione and Perdita. Paulina is an example of a Feminist, because she fights against the male authority, the king, to try and defend the queen. Hermione, which is the second most powerfull person of her kingdom fights against the king to try and defend her power, which is only less than his because he is a man. In both cases they fights to achieve a fair treatmen of themselves, and also of other woman, which seemed impossible in the society of that time, which was ruled by men.

Feminism is an intellectual and political movement where woman look for justice and the end of sexism. They seek to stop injustice between the two sexes and to be equal. In Shakespearean times, or Elizabethan England, women’s role in society where limited. The women were expected to be housewives and mothers. Men on the other hand were seen as leaders and the women the inferior sex.
Although many of the characteristic of these Elizabethan times were reflected on William Shakespeare’s plays. Many (or almost all) the main female characters on the plays, show rebellion. Some of the critics agree on this as not only are the women shown reading (in that time it was rear for a woman to read) but they also speak out for themselves which at that time was seen as a rebellious act.
In “The Winters Tale”, this is shown through Paulina, who speaks out for Hermione, as she believes the wife of Leontes never cheated on him with Polixenes. It is also slightly seen through Hermione as she acts strong to Leontes accusations. She acts strong by not crying and acts “honorable” as she never begs for forgiveness.
I disagree with the critics and the supposal feminist features of Shakespeare’s plays and even “The Winters Tale”. Even though Paulina stands out, she has no power. The King (as the ruler of all) still controls her and detests her. Moreover, Hermione acts heroic and reasonable, but, if it weren’t for Apollo’s response, she would have been killed. She had no say against the king, as he believed everything she said was a lie (just because she is a woman).

Psychoanalytical Literary Criticism

This particular critical approach was developed immediately after the appearance of psychoanalysis, school of thought pursued initially by the Austrian Sigmund Freud. It was based on the manifestation of the author's unconscious mind –where someone stores all their innermost desires and feelings outside conscious awareness, either because they are considered unacceptable or they are too painful to deal with- on the literary work and the way it generated an underlying meaning and response to certain events or characters within it.

Therefore, and in its simplest form, the approach becomes the psychoanalysis (study of psychological functioning) of the author. To achieve this, critics begin a careful sifting through semiotics and language in the play or novel in order to extricate the hidden real message (or latent meaning) from the superficial plot or manifest meaning, which would contain the author's deepest anxieties and/or feelings.
D. W. Winnicot also established the possibility of a relationship between the reader and the text, in what he called the potential space; here, no relevance is given to what is real and what is not and there's no clear differentiation between objectivity and subjectivity.

In “A Winter's Tale”, King Leontes is a clear example of this. He becomes increasingly jealous at Hermione and Polixenes's closeness, eventually taking his anger further and converting it to something akin to misogyny and tyranny. The particular emphasis on this side of Leontes may show that Shakespeare himself either shared some of this traits or felt identified with his situation, as might someone in the audience. Likewise, the whole act presents aspects of 'potential space', when Leontes twists everything to fit his delusion of faithlessness, and every suspicion is obviously a fact in his mind. Leontes would be considered, according to the theory, covertly a very insecure person, used to getting everything he wanted because of his status, and probably felt threatened and left out in Hermione's and Polixenes's friendship, and used the first chance he got to dissociate and displace his insecurity with irrational anger and jealousy, all of this unconsciously.

Feminism is a movement organized around the strong belief that there should exist social, political and economic equality between men and women (equal pay, property rights, access to education) as well as a strong recognition of the male predominance in the world and, hence, the efforts to change it.
The Feminist theory surges from these movements and studies the feminist politics in a wide range of topics such as literature, cinema and language ,all analyzing and criticizing the role and position of woman in society. The literary theory has studied, for example, women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature.
I feel that these theories can easily apply to Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s tale”. To see this we just need to look at the politic and personal relationships of the characters in it. For instance, Paulina is the character who has shown the most courage and strongest personality throughout the play, but she, as a woman, cannot overcome the King’s male dominance, which can even overshadow the Queen, who should be an equal, but due to her gender, is the subordinate. It is interesting how this is not the other way around, and if it were, it would seem extremely peculiar, almost imposible. Furthermore, in the play we can only see this woman suffer the harsh consequences from the supposed adultery, and it is only her, the woman, who is hardly punished for the act, while Polixenes is not given further thoughts.

Mr Collins: sorry sir, I know this is a day late. I was thinking we had philosophy and forgot we had english homework too.

Feminism is a movement which seeks to obtain equality in rights between men and women. This means to increase the rights of women in order to match those of men, be it in political, economic and social circumstances or opportunities in life in general. Feminism is not only reserved for women, as though it includes people who believe that only women are negatively affected by sexism, it also includes those who think both sexes are aggrieved by following the traditional gender roles.

Feminism was initially led by middle class women from Europe and North America in the late XIX century however many more women have joined the cause since then. During this time, feminism has campained and succeded in winning important battles for the rights of women, for example the right to vote in most countries and equal wages than men.

In A Winter's Tale, Shakespeare arguably presents us with quite a pro-feminist story. We see examples of strong, decided women in both Hermione and Paulina. Hermione is a charming but highly intelligent queen. Faced with dishonourable accusations from his husband she never admits to having been unfaithful, as she knows this is not the case. She ultimately prefers death than living with her name tainted. Paulina also shows us her strength in the fact that she stands up to Leontes and confronts him about his actions, which she considers to be reckless and unsustained on any real evidence. In contrast, we have his husband which is unable to face the king even though she disagrees with him. Lastly, we have Perdita, which does not fall for the charms of Polixenes' son, a prince, and is very realistic and thoughtful about the future of their relationship.

By Tomás Gothe

For a long time, the greatest authors, philosophers and critics were all men. This explains why it was a long time before any approaches against chauvinism were taken, since being them who write and analyzed, the inferiority and unacnowledgement of women were not thoroughly considered.

So, before feminism fidhts began, women always appeared to play secondary roles in novels, those who are not taken into much account, do not have much right of opinion and even less do they appear to have respect and admiration from men, if it was not for their looks. However, we begin to find female presence much more commonly in more recent classical and contemporary literature. In such novels, the female character outstands because for the first time in history, such characters speak out, accomplish, demand, act, and decide. Women can now decide and act for themselves without a permanent paternal shadow over them. This change in literature goes hand in hand with tha change in history since it was only a reflection of what was happening at the time. Women were standing up for themselves, wven if this implied that they were to be mistreated and wrongly thought of by others. These others included besides men themselves the more conservative and oldfashioned women.

This feminist theory applies to a Winters Night Tale in such way that Queen Hermione represents it the most. She appears as a self confident and strong Queen, not affected in any sense by the masculine envirronment in which she performs. Not even her husband, King Leontes, has "tamed" her, which shows that unlike the women of her time she is who she wants too be and does not follow the pattern, being this obeying the husbands commands. This does ot mean she does not respect him, but just that she respects herself just as much or even more.
Another example of feminism rise in this play is Perdita who does not fall helplessly in ove with the first man that happens to flatter her, which was very common then, since women felt immediatly surprised if they caught any mans particular attention.

Mr Collins, sorry for handing in my homework late, with the change to philosophy I really did forget we had a pending English homework! Sorry!

Sir I'm so sorry for giving out my homework late! I really didn't know or remembered this task, I guess it was the change to philosophy this week I'm really sorry!
I hope you'll miss us this month and I assure you that it will be the most boring of them all


Feminism is a movement which has the objective to defend the economic, political and social rights for woman. It challenges traditions, some that woman originally "shouldn't" take part of, and it supports the idea of women being an important part of politics, which are mainly constituted by men.
Some people say that there shouldn't be such an important separation that the different genders bring, because this are social constructions that harm all types of people. This is why feminism doesn't try only liberate women, but both genders.
This movement has a lot of different propositions and ideals and it has succeeded in various of them. They cover various topics; for example in economics, they publicly support workplace rights, including equal pay and opportunities for careers and to start businesses. They also oppose the different demonstrations of sexual violence and aggressive acts of such as harassment, rapes, and assaults.
Feminism has become a stronger and more powerful movement among the years, and more people got interested in this movement and the ideas that this one integrated.
This theory is hugely applied in "A Winter's Tale", and it is reflected in various characters. The strongest character in the play, in my opinion, is Paulina, the loyal servant of Hermione. Maybe she has no physical power over the king, because of her social class, but after the speech that she gives him when Hermione faints, she not also shows her strong and tremendously brave personality, but also makes a difference to the King's believes, and changes the path of the play completely. This character doesn't keep her thoughts to herself, on the contrary, she expresses everything she feels and believes to make a difference and to establish her point. This was very rare in the times the play was written, as it upholds the traditional roles, so Feminism is more emphasized.
We also see this type of behavior in Hermione, but in a different way. We notice it in the part when she is arrested and she says she isn't going to cry like most woman, because she wasn't going to reveal to everybody that weakness. Instead she was going to be strong, even though the King had made false accusations. She wasn't going to weep; she was maintaining her pride and honor until the end. This makes the Queen stand out in the play, and show her feminism, and makes the reader admire this qualities the Queen possess.

COPIED TEXT REMOVED


Applying the feminist theory on to the current drama piece we are studying, "A Winter's Tale" by Shakespeare, we can say that this is deeply developed through the female control over male characters. For instance, the Queen Hermione, apperas as a strong and confident woman which disobeys her husband and stands up por what she wants. Furthermore, Paulina, the friend and servant of Queen Hermione, has the courage to defend her position to King Leontes. These particular scenes are extremely relevant because they both represent the female power and bravery against males and chauvanism, since both of these women firmly stick up to their beliefs and respect themselves more than they respect anyone.


Teresita Eyzaguirre

Feminism is a movement which promotes equilibrium between men and women. It aims at defending equal opportunities for women, ranging from political, social, economic and cultural factors. It seeks recognition for women in our chauvinistic society and pursues benefits for women and men equally. It works towards a goal of balance, in which women were not seen as inferior but equals, sharing the same amount and type of rights, proving that no sex was superior to the other.
It is a motion which began in the 19th century, commonly seen in the United States and United Kingdom in 'waves'. The first of these focused on equality in property rights, marriage relationships and women's right to vote. The second sought the elimination of discrimination on cultural, social and political issues. This was also calles Women's Liberation as it emphasized womens freedom from the power society has unfairly entitled men. The last of these waves addresses feminism across class and race lines, blaming culture and society for the injust life women have had to support instead of the idea that the superiority of a race is given in their genes.
In A Winter's Tale, Shakespear appears to be pro-femminist as he presents us with an evident amount of strong, female characters with great importance throughout the play. We first encounter Hermione, a queen of strong character and superior knowledge which is unjustly accused of adultery by her husband. When she comes upon the situation she reacts as an rational person would, suprised, but immediately regains composure and defends herself. Although her husband insists on her being guilty, she defies him verbally and demostrates her innocence. She finds herself in an extremely complex situation in which a woman would have been expected to act upon her feelings, but she proves society wrong by occupying her knowledge to prove her beliefs; she does not let herself be affected by the supposed 'power' the men had and maintains her line of thought throughout the courtroom scene. The king does not believe her, defying the gods and provoking his beloved wife's death. At this we come upon Paulina, a character which we know is extremely close to queen and immediately comes to her defense, standing up not only for the queen but for women in general. She speaks to the king with intense words of brutal weight, not once breaking into the expected manner of a woman but persisting as strong and unbreakable; she proves her point and provokes feelings of guilt in the king. The fact that the is capable of having an effect on a mans opinion shows the strenght of the woman, and the weight their words of knowledge can truly have. Throughout the play we are also introducd to more female characters which seem to follow the line of independance and force we have previously come upon. With the importance given to these characters we can see that Shakespeare supported feminism, even if it was unconsciously; he mirrored the society in which he lived by insisting on the idea of men as seen to be superior but shows that there exists exceptions of unforgettable woman who went against the expected and stood up for themselves.

PS: Sorry for the tardyness, but I completely forgot!

Mr. Collins!!! I am so sorry for giving this in late, I have no excuses other than those everybody mentioned earlier. With all the change of classes I completely forgot about the homework. I know this is not an excuse but I am very sorry.

Feminist approach towards Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale".

Feminism is a term that is constantly used and in some occasions connotes negative elements. Feminism strictly refers to a movement in which women seek to establish equal rights with men. This ultimately is reflected in areas such as politics, social rights and economy. Women over the years have been given less value as a person over the centuries by the inevitable chauvinism of men. This, undoubtedly, has considerably changed over the years but sadly is still present to certain level.
Before Feminism originated, a movement called Protofeminism was created during the early 16th century. Eventually, Feminism began to appear strongly during the 18th century and began with pleads of social rights and eventually asked for political and economical equality during the 20th century.

In "The Winter's Tale" Shakespeare portrays Feminism throughout the Queen Hermione, clearly her character throughout the process of her unfair accusations, which were furthermore created by a strongly chauvinist man. Seems to some extent so confident of herself and brave, that it shows how a strong women surrounded by an oppressing society can stand up in a certain way to unfair treatment. Her deadly conviction ultimately showed how men had the final word at those times, but never the less she kept her pride and honor intact. This power and determination of never cracking emphasizes her character in the play and at the same time emphasizes the idea of Feminism which is just beginning to arise.