Feminist literary criticism

    Feminist is a term that known as a person that supports feminine. Literary is the content of the writing. Criticism is also known as the judgement of someone’s thought. In addition, Feminist literary criticism is defined as a person who is informing the theory of feminism by supporting it from the female’s point of view. There are several ways that it can be accomplished. Most feminist critics are arise from the female author as the most critics are based on female characters.      

    A vindication of the rights of women by Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft is also one of the famous feminist author. Wollstonecraft reacts to the education and defend to those who were attempting to deny the rights for women in education. She argues that women should have rights for education. She argues more that if women involved in education they will have the advantage of teaching their children to be educated and be companion to their husband. 

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Feminism/Literature/A_Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Woman

https://www.nypl.org/node/5672

Supernatural is that which exists (or is claimed to exist), yet cannot be explained by laws of nature. Examples often include characteristics of or relating to ghosts, angels, gods, souls and spirits, non-material beings, or anything else considered beyond nature like magic, miracles, etc. Supernaturalism, as opposed to naturalism, is a belief in the supernatural in interpreting the world or attempting to control it. It can vary from those who believe that supernatural powers or entities are constantly or continuously intervening in the natural world to those who, like Deists, believe that only the origins of the natural world and its laws should be sought in the supernatural.

The Book Paradise lost by John Milton is all about the supernatural being. We see how Milton justifies the actions of God in the beginning. Freedom of choice is god given yet, we are judged by the choices we make. In this book, Milton reminds the reader of the power God has over us. How we cry and beg for mercy to God. Paradise lost also talks about Satan and him being the supernatural who is filled with rage against God. In this reading, we also get a hint of seeing God as power hungry. Where God allows Satan to seduce human being on the wrong path, knowing that eventually people will get vulnerable and beg Mercy from the God. In this book, Milton shows the reader both sides of the supernatural being. One is God being the power-hungry Supernatural and the other is the Satan Supernatural being whose the only task is to defy God. Many of us believe in supernatural being and many don’t because that is something we can’t see with our naked eyes.

Fun links to related glossary word: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/arts/television/secrets-to-the-long-life-of-supernatural.html

The Uncanny: (strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way)

The uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. It may describe incidents where an everyday object or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context. The uncanny places us “in the field where we do not know how to distinguish bad and good, pleasure from displeasure”, resulting in an irreducible anxiety that gestures to the Real.

The Uncanny can be related to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley where victor strives to create a new being by stitching various parts of human corpses to create a new being. He wanted to feel the power of creation and cheat death. On chapter 4 (page 49) Victor is filled with regret of the Hideous corpse like creation, “fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life… A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” We can see how Victor is much more horrified when the muscles and joints started to move. This example of Victor explains the definition of the Uncanny. Something that is strangely familiar. In this example, that was a human-like figure (corpse) that is given life and we are unable to connect to it. It is something that is unnatural.

links to related terms:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/t/uncanny

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/mike-kelley-uncanny

Ambiguity refers to being doubtfully or uncertain of a meaning or intention. It can also mean something that can be interpreted in more than one possible way. Ambiguity can be seen in many different forms. It can be seen in movies, books, poems, and also real life situations. It can be used in forms of writing and in speech. We see ambiguity used in Mary Shelley’s On Ghost in many parts of the book for example:

“This visitation continued for several weeks, when by some accident he altered his residence, and then he saw it no more. Such a tale may easily be explained away; but several years had passed, and he, a man of strong and virile intellect, said that “he had seen a ghost.”

In this narrative of the text the narrator describes how the incident that they are describing can be explained away but it can also be interpreted as a form of a supernatural encounter. This shows ambiguity because it is explained that the event could have been interpreted in two different ways.

Work Cited:

“’On Ghosts’ by Mary Shelley (1824).” Pornokitsch, www.pornokitsch.com/2014/07/non-fiction-on-ghosts-by-mary-shelley.html.

“Ambiguity.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/ambiguity?s=t.

“Ambiguity.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambiguity.

Supernatural refers to the existence of something or an event that is beyond what is seen or observed. It is also described as something that doesn’t follow the laws of nature. When we think of supernatural we automatically think of magic, UFO’s, or ghost. The element of supernatural is put into many movies and books even to this day. We see supernatural used in many ways such as supernatural events happening or encountering a supernatural being. We see examples of supernatural being used in Mary Shelley’s On Ghost in passages such as:

“This visitation continued for several weeks, when by some accident he altered his residence, and then he saw it no more. Such a tale may easily be explained away; but several years had passed, and he, a man of strong and virile intellect, said that “he had seen a ghost.”

This passage shows a supernatural element in it because of how the narrator talks about what happened all the way up to how the character claims that he had seen a ghost.

“No sooner had he mentioned the coffin with the crown upon it, than his friend’s cat, who seemed to have been lying asleep before the fire, leaped up, crying out, ‘Then I am king of the cats;’ and then scrambled up the chimney, and was never seen more.”

This passage shows a supernatural element in it because of how the cat starts talking. In this passage, the cat gets up claiming that “Then I am king of cats”. This is considered supernatural because cats do not talk. The supernatural style of writing can also be interpreted as a type of motif of writing in novels.

Works Cited:

“Omnipotent.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/omnipotent.

“Supernatural.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supernatural.

“’On Ghosts’ by Mary Shelley (1824).” Pornokitsch, www.pornokitsch.com/2014/07/non-fiction-on-ghosts-by-mary-shelley.html.

Sympathy

Sympathy means a mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it, a unity or harmony in action or effect. It also means an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other inclination to think or feel alike or an emotional or intellectual accord. In Never Let Me Go, in a way we may feel a lack of sympathy to the donors because it was their duty to society. There were no fighting scenes, no emotions. And, the way that it was written it seemed just a way of life. On the other hand, they are humans with thoughts and creativity. Sympathy relates to the term ambiguity. Ishiguro puts the morals into question, which brings a sense of ambiguity. On one hand, the donors are a utility for society and made it normal for them to give all of their organs and die. There is a question as to whether they are human or not. If having a sum of trillions of cells organized in a way to perform certain tasks, then yes, they are human. If they are human, then their sacrifice can be seen as a form of abuse because they have thoughts and feelings too. However, once the concept of a soul is brought up, things become hazier because there is no way to identify if the clones have souls. Therefore, we cannot determine if the clones were human or not. But does it really matter if they are human or not or should they really just be seen as a commodity to benefit the nation.

Works Cited

“Sympathy.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/sympathy.

Utopian

In Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, the structured confining atmosphere is conveyed fairly nicely. The donors have one purpose which is to harvest their organs and eventually complete, to pass on. They are seen as a utility on behalf of other people’s survival. This word allegory, can be connected to the word utopian in this context. Never Let Me Go is an allegory for a utopian society. Utopia means modeled on or aiming for a state in which everything is perfect; idealistic. In a utopian society, no objections are made, no questions are asked. There is a sense of conformity with no struggle. The donors just do what they are told. In this society, the leaders have positions to make important decisions which are enforced and followed. In a utopian society, everything is followed which creates a state of perfection. The argument in this scenario wins the good of the many outweigh the good of the few and so for this a subculture of human livestock is created. It implies that one person is more valuable than another. In a broader sense the donors are a mirror to the plight of all domesticated animals, whose entire existence is dependent on their use by others. Speciesism arguably originated in animal domestication and thus is infinitely more entrenched in our culture. In Never Let Me Go, there is a certain kind of power which shows that the donors have nothing that can save them- not love, art, or beauty; Resistance is futile. And that is why there is no fighting, because they are outnumbered. Ishiguro’s novels often end without any sense of resolution.

Works Cited

“Utopian.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/utopian.

An archetype is the perfect example or model of something. It would be something that serves as a model or example for future copies of that thing.  An example of an archetype used in our unit is from Oryx and Crake. Although archetype is sort of the ideal that is copied, in Oryx and Crake, Crake attempted to create the archetype of what he thought humans ought to be. By creating what he felt was the perfect human he was attempting to create the human archetype. He created them in as many ways having an ideal as much as possible. For example, he felt ideally, that people should not be racist or even notice differences of color between each other. In order to fit that into his archetype, he makes the Crakers different colors and programs them to not notice the color differences amongst themselves. He could have easily made them all the same color and still made them not care for color. Or he could have made them all different colors and notice each other differences but still programmed to not care. Either or these options would have the same effect. But for Crake’s ideals, humans come in different colors and there isn’t one color that ought to be the archetype, therefore the Crakers should have different colors. Another example is how they are all programmed to die at age 30. In order for the Crakers to always be the archetype, he cannot have elderly ones, because then they would not be ideal as they age. Rather they are always ideal and then they die. The last example is how they all have green eyes. We learn in the book that Crake’s personal preference of what he felt was the ideal eye color was green. He found it to be the most appealing eye color, therefore his archetype people should all express this ideal look. Although archetype usually refers to something that serves as a “classic” example that is then copied, in Oryx and Crake an archetype is being created backward in which the ideal is taken from bits and pieces from everyone and then put together to create an archetype.

“Archetype – Dictionary Definition.” Vocabulary.com, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/archetype.

“Archetypes Revealed in Oryx & Crake – by Margaret Atwood.” Brooke’s Blog Diary, 26 Apr. 2017, fultonblogger.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/archetypes-revealed-in-oryx-crake-by-margaret-atwood/.

The “Uncanny Valley” is a term coined in 1970 by Masahiro Mori that describes our revolting reaction to something that seems very human but is not exactly. His research suggests that the more human something seems the more our affinity goes up for that thing until it seems a little too human. When something becomes too human, our affinity for it drops suddenly and we are disturbed by it.

We can see this effect happening in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. In the book, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature that looks very human. He uses real human parts to make him. But when he becomes animated Frankenstein is horrified. It is something that looks very realistically human, but is not exactly. This is an exact example of the effect of the uncanny valley.

“Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.”

Frankenstein is describing the very concept of the uncanny valley in that passage. He said it was ugly when he was putting him together. Obviously, he still looks the same when animated, he is just moving around and seeming alive now. But it is when something that seems human becomes a little too human, in this case through animation, that it when the uncanny valley effect occurs.

Mori, Masahiro. “The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori.” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, IEEE Spectrum, 12 June 2012, spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/the-uncanny-valley.

Schwarz, Rob. “10 Creepy Examples of the Uncanny Valley.” Stranger Dimensions, Stranger Dimensions, 14 Sept. 2017, www.strangerdimensions.com/2013/11/25/10-creepy-examples-uncanny-valley/.

Anthropocene is a proposed name for the current geological epoch, which describes the impact that humankind has had on the planet. “Anthropocene”, derived from the Greek words anthropo for “man” and cene for “new”, translates to “recent age of man”. The name of our current geological epoch, the Holocene, is being criticized by a growing number of scientists as being outdated and inadequately describes the impact humans have had on the environment, such as the pollution of oceans and of the atmosphere, the mass extinction of plant and animal species and other lasting effects (Stromberg 2013).

Human effects on the environment are widespread. Between Agriculture, the damming of rivers and mining, humans are stripping away sediment at 10 times the natural rate of erosion. The burning of fossil fuels has acidified the oceans because of increased levels of CO2 and the nutrients from fertilizers are creating “dead-zones” along coastlines (Monsastersky 2015). Earth’s increasing population, the industrialization of agricultural processes and globalization have only made things worse. Between cultivation and raising livestock, It is estimated that humans have converted nearly two-fifths of the Earth’s landmass for agriculture (Rafferty 2009).

Scientists disagree about the timeline for this new era. While some believe the era should begin with the invention of agriculture, most say it should begin after the industrial revolution. Since the determination of these eras are decided by examining geological markers in the Earth’s rock strata, geologists believe that if there is going to be a new era, it would start with the nuclear age. Nuclear testing, along with plastics, concrete, artificial fertilizers and leaded petroleum have all left the necessary evidence in the Earth’s sediment (Monastersky 2015).

In the novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood warns of a catastrophic future, destroyed by unchecked corporate greed and technology run amok.  She explores the selfish attitude that humans have about manipulating nature to sustain their lifestyles.  In Atwood’s world, the commodification of nature led to the destruction of their cloud forests, genetic manipulation of animals would eventually introduce new predators to the ecology, and the desire for humans to remain youthful led to massive amounts of inequality.  By using this apocalyptical imagery in her portrayal of a world in which parallels to our own can be seen, she makes an appeal for us to discard “fake joy” and “to prevent technology from robbing the natural world and civilization” (Bhalla 2014).

Works cited:

1. Bhalla, Ambika, Bhangu, J.P.K. and Singh, Manmohan. “Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake: An Ecocritical Approach” International Journal of Research, November 2014, edupediapublications.org
2. Monastersky, Richard. “Anthropocene: The Human Age” Nature, Nature, 14 March 2015, http://www.nature.com/news/anthropocene-the-human-age-1.17085?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20150312
3. Rafferty, John P. “Anthropocene Epoch” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 February 2009, https://www.britannica.com/science/Anthropocene-Epoch
4. Stromberg, Joseph. “What Is The Anthropocene And Are We In It?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian.com, January 2013, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/