A Literature of their own : The Role of Women Writers in the History of British Literature

 

Elian Showalter, one of the pillars of feminist criticism, has acquired a distinguished position in the field of feminist criticism. She for the first time traced out and prepared a history of women's fiction in England. This concern for female writers in particular and women, in general, was the result of a series of incidents and influences which she had since her childhood. several factors are responsible for making her feminist.
In her book, she presents different aspects of feminism. Showalter has started her discussion with what others have said about female writing and female creativity in her first chapter "The Female Tradition “. The chapter begins with a quotation from G. H. Lewes saying that in spite of the fact that women have different spheres, experiences, and perspectives from males, women are not able to write as women, they are imitating the way men write. According to Lewes, to write as a woman is the real task women have to perform. John Stuart Mill also agreed and argued that women will have to struggle a lot to create an original and independent art untouched and influenced by the male literary tradition. The writer quotes J.S. Mill, "if women lived in different countries from men and had never read any of their writings. They would have a literature of their own " He also said, women will always be imitators and never innovators.
To this Showalter answered that women have already attained a literary position. She further says that nobody will deny that the nineteenth century was the "age of female novelists" with examples like Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot.
Another charge against the female novelists is that they have always been self-conscious and rarely self-defining. Showalter says that the opinions about women's writings are so inaccurate and scattered. It is so because the critics have focused on the few great novelists who have derived their opinions. From them, they have ignored the writers who are not supposed to be great but are very important if we want to trace the real trends in female literary tradition. Regarding the prominence and greatness of a woman writer, Showalter says that if we want to view how female self-awareness has gotten expression in the hands of female writers, we need to view them against the backdrop of women of her time.
Showalter attempted to find out when women began to write fiction and talk about 1750 on women stepping into the literary marketplace as novelists. Critics like J.M.S. Tompkins and watt found that most nineteenth-century novels were written by women. This huge influx of female novelists brought a new trend to the literary mainstream. Now, men were able to imitate and usurp female experience.
Further discussing the early trends of female writing and the professional role of female writers. She tells that eighteenth-century women novelist exploited the stereotype of helpless femininity to win protection from male reviewers. The main theme of novels of the eighteenth century is feminism.
In the chapter "The Feminine Novelists and The Will to write" Showalter describes why and how women are disliked as writers. She notices that women faced many problems in maintaining their careers as professional writers.
In the third chapter "The Double critical standard and feminine novel "Showalter concentrates on the double standards of analysis and assessment of writings by male and female writers. In this chapter, Showalter talks about three main reasons why men found demerits in female writing. First, in most of the criticism, Showalter argues and tries to justify the assumption that novels by women could be recognized as inferior to those by men. Secondly, there was a strong belief that the female body was in itself an inferior instrument and, small, weak, and liable to collapse, eclipse and get failure. The third criticism given for the inferiority of female writing was a limited experience. Man has a wider experience and the world is opened for him more than women. Showalter condemns thinkers and scholars who opined that woman lacked in confidence and imagination. Showalter quotes Charlotte Bronte, " to you I am neither man nor woman. I came before you as an author only. It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me - the sole ground on which I accept your judgement "
We can sum up our discussion by saying that   Showalter has contributed great scholarship to feminist literary criticism and made the minor women writers nineteenth and twentieth century to hold a prominent position in the history of fiction writing in English.