Author(s)

Yiting Wang

Corresponding Author

Yiting Wang

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the development of feminism in English language literature from 19th to 20th century by investigating the developing explanation of feminism in English literary works. The main findings of this review are: 1) the emphasis of feminism has been shifting from women’s rights in political areas to individual’s daily life and the scope of feminism has been continually enlarging. 2) In the 19th century feminism is expressed in the context of the relationship between men and women. In the 20th century, feminism is delineated from the perspective of women’s domestic life and familial value. However, later in the 21st century, feminism is becoming a theory isolating women from any kind of social relationships and portraying women’s own feeling, experience and life goal. 3) Female feminism writers tend to write female characters who holds feminism thoughts bearing various kinds of temperament while male feminism writers’ female characters in feminism literature used to be radical women; Female writers’ characters are more realistic, always choosing to seek feminism within the social norms and compromising to reality while the female characters portrayed by male writers tend to be more idealized, breaking the rules and adhering to their own personality, often with a tragic ending; some female feminism writers express feminism idea through lesbian relationship or through women’s own experience while male writers often discuss feminism in a heterosexual relationship. To conclude, feminism has becoming more specialized on individual’s own life and experience from 19th to 21st century, which has covered more groups of people and social issues. The waves of feminism and the feminism literature are interacted and interrelated.

KEYWORDS

Feminism Literature, Feminism, 19th-21st Century Studies