Images of woman: The Question of Women's Representation in Literature

Mouaci, Nawal; Kaced, Assia

أفكار وآفاق
Volume 12, Numéro 1, Pages 197-210
2024-05-07

Images Of Woman: The Question Of Women's Representation In Literature

Authors : Mouaci Nawal . Kaced Assia .

Abstract

The question of women's representation in literature has prevailed feminist criticism from its early outset. The combination of stereotypes, patriarchy, and the domination of male writers participated in drawing distorted images of women in literature. Feminist criticism revealed that the images of women constructed and portrayed by male writers were remarkably misogynistic and misleading to the public view. This has triggered many feminists and women writers to move forward to demystify the female representation and image in literature. The following paper aims to reveal the social, cultural, and sexual representations of women in selected literary texts written by both male and female writers. The paper ends by suggesting that challenging and changing the representation of women in literature needs both autonomous women writers and resistant women readers.