Download
1 / 15
150 likes | 301 Vues
Feminist Theory and Class Consciousness. The Taming of the Shrew. Dowry. A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to a marriage .
E N D
Feminist Theoryand Class Consciousness The Taming of the Shrew
Dowry A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to a marriage. Dowry is an ancient custom, and its existence may well predate records of it. Dowries continue to be expected in some parts of the world, mainly India.
There are several possible functions for a dowry system. 1. One function of a dowry may be to provide the husband with "seed money" or property for the establishment of a new household and to help feed and protect the family. 2. Another may be to provide the wife and children with some support if he were to die. 3. Many authors believe that the giving and receiving of dowry reflects social status and even the effort to climb higher in a social hierarchy.
Primogeniture Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings. Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females.
European History The law of primogeniture in Europe has its origins in Medieval Europe; which due to the feudal system necessitated that the estates of land-owning feudal lords be kept as large and united as possible to maintain social stability as well as the wealth, power and social standing of their families.
Land = Power/ Power = sex Common in feudal Europe outside of Germany was land inheritance based on a form of primogeniture: A lord was succeeded by his eldest son but, failing sons, either by daughters or sons of daughters. In most medieval Western European feudal fiefs, females (such as daughters and sisters) were allowed to succeed, brothers failing. But usually the husband of the heiress became the real lord, assuming his wife's title.
Feminism feminism |ˈfeməˌnizəm| noun the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.
Patriarchy patriarchy |ˈpātrēˌärkē| noun ( pl. patriarchies ) a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line. a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. a society or community organized in this way.
Misogyny misogyny |məˈsäjənē| noun the hatred of women by men: she felt she was struggling against thinly disguised misogyny.
Feminist Criticism: What is it Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and "...this critique strives to expose the explicit and implicit misogyny in male writing about women" (Richter 1346).
A Feminist Reading of The Taming of the Shrew Not only were women in the Renaissance something like “chattel” to use for a sort of bargaining between fathers and suitors, but the qualities that made them either desirable or undesirable as wives leads to the notion of a rightful patriarchal judgment of who a woman should and should not be, that men have a right to reject or “tame” qualities in a woman that they find unattractive. These unattractive qualities usually involve a dominant, mouthy woman such as Katherine.
Is Misogny Everywhere? In “Misogyny is Everywhere,” Phyllis Rackin observes, “that women were expected to be chaste, silent, and obedient probably occurs more frequently in recent scholarship than they did in the literature of Shakespeare’s time;” however, she explains, “the connections between female speech and female sexual transgression (ex: losing one’s virginity before marriage) are retraced and the anxieties evoked by the possibility of female power are discovered in play after play.”(44).
