The dark place where talent leads: the merits and shortcomings of feminist criticism in the study of selected works by Christa Wolf

[摘要] During earlier research, it became evident Feminist Literary Criticism could offer useful insightswhen reading Christa Wolfs work. At the same time, such criticism revealed certain limitationswhich inhibit a full and accurate reading of Wolfs work. Given this situation, an exploration of themerits and shortcomings of Feminist Literary Criticism when applied to selected works of ChristaWolf became necessary. The research question has been articulated thus: What are the meritsand shortcomings of Feminist Literary Criticism when applied to selected works of Christa Wolf?Because the Feminist Movement lacks dominant theory, the question arises whether Feminismcan be seen as a literary theory/criticism that can serve as an appropriate means of investigatingChrista Wolfs work. A corollary to the research question consequently emerged: does Feminismoffer a literary theory or rather a philosophy/ideology based on a diversity of presumptions,gender included? In order to seek answers to these questions, the following dimensions areaddressed:(a) A brief historical background and critical overview of Feminism;(b) An exploration of the multiplicity and diversity of the Feminist approaches andmethodologies and the question of whether an integrated Feminist theory exists atpresent;(c) A further exploration of differences between the Anglo-American and French 'schools' ofFeminist because such theories impact upon the study; German Feminist Criticism isalso dealt with;(d) A consideration of debates concerning the terms female writing, feminist writing andfeminine writing based on Feminist distinctions between female, feminist and feminineas well as the difference between gender and sex.(e) A consideration of Christa Wolf's creative vision of a Utopian Society and its relationshipto the Feminist Movement's critical stances towards patriarchies throughout history.(f) A discussion of the discrepancies between female and feminist re-tellings of mythicalmaterials as well as the manner in which Wolf deconstructs and reconstructs prehistoricmyth in such a way that patriarchal misrepresentations are made evident.This dissertation consists of five chapters. The opening chapter offers a critical overview of themain premises of Feminist Criticism, drawn from major and/or contemporary sources. Part of thisdiscussion falls on writings generated especially by German and American feminist critics whofocus on the reception of Christa Wolfs work. The focal point of discussion is whether theFeminist Movement offers a literary-critical theory that can be applied meaningfully to the worksof Christa Wolf.Chapter 1 is followed by three chapters (Chapters 2, 3, and 4), each devoted to discussion of anindividual text by Wolf: Nachdenken Ober Christa T., Kassandra and Medea respectively.Methodologically, each chapter manifests a tripartite structure consisting of (a) a detaileddiscussion of Feminist Criticism of the specific text; (b) a hermeneutic examination of the textitself; and (c) an explication of the similarities and differences between (a) and (b) to show themerits and shortcomings of Feminist criticism of the text.The penultimate chapter, Chapter 5, examines some of Wolfs non-fictional work with a view todelineating her perspectives on the major gender themes and motifs in her fiction while the finalchapter offers a discussion of the findings. The dissertation concludes with a list of references.

[发布机构] University of the Free State