Feminism

Feminism refers to movements aimed at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlaps with those of women’s rights. Feminism – That is, persons practicing feminism – can be persons of either sex. Feminist theory emerged from these feminist movements and includes general theories and theories about the origins of inequality and in some cases about the social construction of sex and gender, in a variety of disciplines. First – wave feminism sought equality in property rights, changes in the marriage relationship, and eventually in women’s suffrage or women’s right to vote. Second – wave feminism also sometimes called women’s liberation, began in 1960s and focused on discrimination and on cultural, social and political issues and books about it included The Feminine Mystique and The Second Sex. It was often accused of orienting to upper middle-class white women and sometimes, of biological essentialism. Third – wave feminism began in the 1980s or early 1990s and addresses feminism across class and race lines.

Langue and Parole

Langue and parole are more than just language and speech. Although this is a useful wuick way of remembering them. Language that proceeds and makes speech possiblem A sign is a basic unit of langue. Learning the language, we master the system of grammer, spelling , syntax and punctuation. These are all elements of langue. Langue is a system in that it has a large number of elements whereby meaning is created in the arrangement of its elements and the consequent relationship between this arranged elements.

Parole is the concrete use of language, the actual utterances. It is an external manifestation of language. It is the usage of the system. By defining langue and parole - Ferdinard, Saussure differentiating "---between the language and how it is used and thereby enabling these two very different thing to be studies as separate entities. "

The Empire Writes Back

The Empire Writes Back by Bill Ashcraft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin was the first major theoritical account of a wide range of post-colonial texts and their relation to the larger issues of post-colonial culture and remains one of the most significant works published in this field. The authors, three leading figures in post colonial studies open up debates about the interrelationship of post-colonial culture, investigate the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial texts and show how this texts constitute a redical critique of euro-centric notions of literature and language. This book is brilliant not only for incissive analysies but also for its acceptibility to the readers new in the field. Now with an additional chapter and an updated bibliography, The Empire Writes Back is essential for contemporary post-colonial studies.

Diaspora

The word 'Diaspora' comes from ancient Greek and it means 'scattering of seeds'. Over the centuries, the meaning has altered. In the 'Old Testament', the word came to be used for Jews who were exiled from Judea in five eighty six (586) Bcc and again from Zerusalem in 136 ce. Many ethnic groups have forced or induced to leave their native land for a variety of socio-economic and political reasons. Diaspora literature refers to the literature of such displaced communities and involves an idea of a homeland, the place from where the displacement has occured. Well-known Diaspora theorists are Robin Cohen, Stuart Hall, Aizaj Ahamed and the like. Writers in this field include Sulman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Khaled Hossaini, Kiran Desai, Meena Alexander and Chitra Bannerjee Dibakaruni.

Third-wave Feminism

The third-wave feminism began in the early 1990 and is continuing even today. Since there was the spelling of failure left throughout the third-wave rose as a response to this feeling. It is also believed that this wave was a reaction to the backlash against initiative a movement that were unexpectedly created in the second wave.

There were many euminaries in this wave of feminism. Among them are Judith Butler, Martha Davis, Betty Dodson, Miranda July and Molly Yart. Celebrity women have played a large role in informing the public about feminism. An example of this is Sandra Oh taking advantage of the face that people lookafter her and therefore changing the mind of the young people about patriarchal dominies. These " grrls " of the third-wave have staged on stage as strong and empowered, eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not as objects of sexist patriarchal.

Second-wave Feminism

The second wave feminism which spans from the early 1960 to the late 1980 came with a feeling of unfinished business left in the year. Unlike the first-wave, the second-wave focused on de factor in equalities and it was also felt that de jure and defacto in equalities were inextricably linked issues that needed to be addressed together. This wave encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal life as deeply politicised and reflective of a sexist structure of power.

There were several major moments during this wave such as the publication of The Faminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, formation of the national organization of women ( now ), and the rise of radical feminism during the 1970. There were also some key players in this wave such as Bella Abjug, Lorraine Bethel, Ann Simontom.

Post-modernism

Some critics are of the opinion that when the characters of modernism are taken to their most extreme forms, they automatically produce post-modernism. In that way, poat modernism literature is 'playful' and non-serious as well as non-constructive ; it consciously rejects the artistic order and the concept of a work of art as a organic whole.

Some critics think that post-modernism is any kind of depiction of the general human condition in the 'late capitalist' world of the post 1950 which have all embracing effect on life, culture, ideology and art which are non-realistic and non-traditional.

It takes the subjective idealism of modernism to the point of solipsism. However it rejects the tragic and pessimistic elements in modernism because it believes that if one can not prevent Rome from burning, then one might as well enjoy the fiddling that is let open to one.

Kafka, Ezra Pound and Derrida, Faucault and Lacan ( inspite of their emphasis on de-construction ) are important practitioners of post-modernism.