The Influence of Literature on the Feminist Movement

Ella Nicholls

There is no doubting that literature is a product of its time and is severely influenced by the cultural, social and political issues in society at the time it was written, consequently its part to play in the feminist movement is potent. Feminism, the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes, or as I see it, the radical notion women should be able to do what men can do without any backlash, is littered throughout the entirety of literature and is (and was) always ahead of the society it was written in. However it still manifests the ideas present in society, but then defies them and constantly challenges stereotypes that women have been confined to for decades.

In  works of Literature written in the Victorian era characters such as Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s Dracula work to challenge ideas of the Victorian ideals of femininity when her moral weakness allows Dracula to prey on her repeatedly during the night and she is bitten by Dracula and joins the undead. Lucy, while morally weaker, is a stronger character than that of Mina who cries when bitten by Dracula; the juxtaposition of these two characters, as far as I am concerned, reflects the changing women or the new women present in society at the end of the Victorian era and the shift from old perceptions of women as weak and subservient and as victims of the male race, to women who know what they want and think and do for themselves, coining the belief that ‘women can do what men can do’, a message so formidable in 2nd wave feminism that broke out during the 1960s, showing the influence of literature on the feminist movement as well as how ahead of its time literature was in terms of challenging the stereotypes women were associated with.

With Angela Carter's short stories in The Bloody Chamber, women too can be seen challenging stereotypes they were subjected to for the entirety of the 1900’s: the ‘housewife’ and the image of ‘domestic perfection’; the women in Carter’s stories however, are versions of well-known fairy-tales who seek what they ardently desire, and become all powerful even in the face of danger. The girls, particularly in the wolf stories, are able to fend and protect themselves from the ‘big bad wolf’ without the help of the brave huntsman that we are so familiar with. Again Carter's writing shows key influences from 3rd wave Feminism (which challenged the definitions that grew from 2nd wave Feminism) when arguably feminism was still in its 2nd wave.

More recent works of literature such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists written in 2014 or Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, by Rebecca Traister, written in 2018, have more obvious feminist readings applied to them; these works also drive the feminist movement forwards, sparking debate and gaining the attention that the movement so desperately needs.

Literature as it has throughout time continues to shape and influence The Feminist Movement and the want for equality of men and women.