GEC 13

LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

MARIA GLORIA R. BECO-NADA

Author/Compiler

Southern Luzon State University

College of Arts and Sciences

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 1

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences 2020
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Lecture 2
Theories in Literature

Overview:
Literary theory is substantial in the study of literature. Readers will able to
have in-depth understanding about the literary text as they apply certain theory.
Also, knowledge in literary theories will broaden the perspective of the readers in
analyzing a literary text.
In this lesson, students will able to learn about different literary theories as
well as their application. There is also a sample reading text that will guide them
how to do literary criticism.

Objectives:
By the end of the lecture, students should have:

1. Defined literary theory and literary criticism

2. Learned the different theories in literature.
3. Understood the functions of literary theories in the study of literature

Scope of Lecture 2:

4. What is literary criticism?

5. Theories in Literature
6. Sample Reading
The Female Protagonists: An Analysis on the Portrayal Of
Women in Popular Literature

Theory can help us learn ourselves and our world in valuable new ways, ways that can influence how we educate our children,
both as parents and teachers; how we view television, from the nightly news to situation comedies; how we behave as voters and
consumers; how we react to other with whom we do not agree on social, religious, and political issues; and how can we recognize
and deal with our own motives, fears and desires.
- Lois Tyson

LITERARY THEORY

Critical theory or literary theory and criticism should always be part in the
study of literature. What will be the possible effect of studying literature and
ignoring literary theory in understanding a literary text? According to Tyson
(2006), the interpretations of literature we produce before we study critical theory
may seem completely personal or natural, but they are based on the beliefs --
beliefs about literature, about education, about language, about selfhood -- that
permeate our culture and that we therefore take for granted.

Critical theory, in fact, long pre-dates the literary criticism of individual works.
The earliest work of theory was Aristotle's Poetics, which, in spite of its title, is
about the nature of literature itself: Aristotle offers famous definitions of tragedy,
insists that literature is about character, and that character is revealed through
action, and he tries to identify the required stages in the progress of a plot.
Aristotle was also the first critic to develop a 'reader-centred' approach to
literature, since his consideration of drama tried to describe how it affected the
audience. (Barry, 2002, p. 23) Then, according to Holman (1992), the first
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 8
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

important critical treatise, the Poetics (4th century BC), has proved to be the most
influential.

Below is Peter Barry’s discussion about critical theory from his book
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory.

Some Recurrent Ideas in Critical Theory

These different approaches each have their separate traditions and histories,
but several ideas are recurrent in critical theory and seem to form what might be
regarded as its common bedrock. Hence, it makes some sense to speak of
'theory' as if it were a single entity with a set of underlying beliefs, as long as we
are aware that doing so is a simplification.

Some of these recurrent underlying ideas of theory are listed below.

1. Many of the notions which we would usually regard as the basic 'givens' of our
existence (including our gender identity, our individual selfhood, and the notion of
literature itself) are actually fluid and unstable things, rather than fixed and reliable
essences. Instead of being solidly 'there' in the real world of fact and experience,
they are 'socially constructed', that is, dependent on social and political forces and
on shifting ways of seeing and thinking. In philosophical terms, all these are
contingent categories (denoting a status which is temporary, provisional,
'circumstance-dependent') rather than absolute ones (that is, fixed, immutable,
etc.). Hence, no overarching fixed 'truths' can ever be established. The results of
all forms of intellectual enquiry are provisional only. There is no such thing as a
fixed and reliable truth (except for the statement that this is so, presumably). The
position on these matters which theory attacks is often referred to, in a kind of
shorthand, as essentialism, while many of the theories discussed in this book
would describe themselves as anti-essentialist.

2. Theorists generally believe that all thinking and investigation is necessarily

affected and largely determined by prior ideological commitment. The notion of
disinterested enquiry is therefore untenable: none of us, they would argue, is
capable of standing back from the scales and weighing things up
dispassionately: rather, all investigators have a thumb on one side or other of the
scales. Every practical procedure (for instance, in literary criticism) presupposes
a theoretical perspective of some kind. To deny, this is simply to try to place our
own theoretical position beyond scrutiny as something which is 'commonsense'
or 'simply given'. This contention is problematical, of course, and is usually only
made explicit as a counter to specific arguments put forward by opponents. The
problem with this view is that it tends to discredit one's own project along with all
the rest, introducing a relativism which disables argument and cuts the ground
from under any kind of commitment.

3. Language itself conditions, limits, and predetermines what we see. Thus, all
reality is constructed through language, so that nothing is simply 'there' in an
unproblematical way - everything is a linguistic/ textual construct. Language
doesn't record reality, it shapes and creates it, so that the whole of our universe
is textual. Further, for the theorist, meaning is jointly constructed by reader and
writer. It isn't just 'there' and waiting before we get to the text but requires the
reader's contribution to bring it into being.

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 9

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

7. Hence, any claim to offer a definitive reading would be futile. The meanings
within a literary work are never fixed and reliable, but always shifting, multi-
faceted and ambiguous. In literature, as in all writing, there is never the possibility
of establishing fixed and definite meanings: rather, it is characteristic of language
to generate infinite webs of meaning, so that all texts are necessarily self-
contradictory, as the process of deconstruction will reveal. There is no final court
of appeal in these matters, since literary texts, once they exist, are viewed by the
theorist as independent linguistic structures whose authors are always 'dead' or
'absent'.

5. Theorists distrust all 'totalising' notions. For instance, the notion of 'great' books
as an absolute and self-sustaining category is to be distrusted, as books always
arise out of a particular socio-political situation, and this situation should not be
suppressed, as tends to happen when they are promoted to 'greatness'. Likewise,
the concept of a 'human nature', as a generalised norm which transcends the idea
of a particular race, gender, or class, is to be distrusted too, since it is usually in
practice Eurocentric (that is, based on white European norms) and androcentric
(that is, based on masculine norms and attitudes). Thus, the appeal to the idea of
a generalised, supposedly inclusive, human nature is likely in practice to
marginalise, or denigrate, or even deny the humanity of women, or disadvantaged
groups.

LITERARY CRITICISM

Holman (1992) defined criticism as a term which has been applied since the
th
17 century, justification, analysis, or judgment of works of art. He added that
there are many ways which criticism may be classified. It may be classified
according to the purpose which it is intended to serve. The principal purposes
which critics have had are: (1) justify’s one’s own work or to explain it and its
underlying principles to an uncomprehending audience (Dryden, Wordsworth,
Henry James); (2) to justify imaginative art in a world that tends to find its value
questionable (Sidney, Shelley, the New Criticism); (3) to describe rules for writers
and to legislate taste for the audience (Pope, Boileau, the Marxists); (4) to
interpret works to readers who might otherwise fail to understand or appreciate
them (Edmund Wilson, Matthew Arnold); (5) to judge works by clearly defined
standards of evaluation (Samuel Johnson, T. S. Elliot); (6) to discover and apply
the principles which describe the foundations of good art (Coleridge, Addison,
I.A. Richards).
Then, Tyson (2006) explained that, literary criticism is the application of
critical theory to a literary text, whether or not a given critic is aware of the
theoretical assumptions informing her or his interpretation. As critics confer their
interpretation about the text, they are doing literary criticism. What guides the
critic to interpret the text, he is using critical theory (literary theory).

LITERARY THEORIES

Semiotics/Structuralist Theory

In the discussion of Eagleton (1996) structuralism, as the term suggests, is

concerned with structures, and more particularly with examining the general laws
by which they work. Then, Barry (2002) explained that structuralism is an
intellectual movement which began in France in the 1950s and is first seen in the
work of the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1908—) and the literary critic
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 10
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Roland Barthes (1915-1980). He also mentioned that, structuralism was imported

into Britain mainly in the 1970s and attained widespread influence, and even
notoriety, throughout the 1980s. Moreover, Selden, Widdowson and Brooker
(2005) explained that in a 1968 essay, Roland Barthes put the structuralist view
very powerfully, and argued that writers only have the power to mix already
existing writings, to reassemble or redeploy them; writers cannot use writing to
‘express’ themselves, but only to draw upon that immense dictionary of language
and culture which is ‘always already written’ (to use a favourite Barthesian
phrase). It would not be misleading to use the term ‘anti-humanism’ to describe
the spirit of structuralism. Indeed the word has been used by structuralists
themselves to emphasize their opposition to all forms of literary criticism in which
the human subject is the source and origin of literary meaning.

In other words, structuralism has linguistic background. To understand this

theory, critic needs to be knowledgeable of Ferdinand Saussure’s key ideas;
object of linguistic investigation and relationship between words and things - from
his book Course in General Linguistics (1915). Also, in structuralism Barry (2002)
clearly discussed that the structures in question here are those imposed by our
way of perceiving the world and organising experience, rather than objective
entities already existing in the external world. It follows from this that meaning or
significance isn't a kind of core or essence inside things: rather, meaning is
always outside. Meaning is always an attribute of things, in the literal sense that
meanings are attributed to the things by the human mind, not contained within
them. But let's try to be specific about what it might mean to think primarily in
terms of structures when considering literature.

Eagleton (1996) illustrated structuralism by giving a simple example. He said,

suppose we are analysing a story in which a boy leaves home after quarrelling
with his father, sets out on a walk through the forest in the heat of the day and
falls down a deep pit. The father comes out in search of his son, peers down the
pit, but is unable to see him because of the darkness. At that moment the sun
has risen to a point directly overhead, illuminates the pit's depths with its rays
and allows the father to rescue his child. After a joyous reconciliation, they return
home together. What a structuralist critic would do would be to schematize the
story in diagrammatic form. The first unit of signification, 'boy quarrels with
father', might be rewritten as 'low rebels Structuralism and Semiotics 83 against
high'. The boy's walk through the forest is a movement along a horizontal axis,
incontrast to the vertical axis 'low/high', and could be indexed as 'middle'. The fall
into the pit, a place below ground, signifies 'low' again, and the zenith of the sun
'high'. By shining into the pit, the sun has in a sense stooped 'low', thus inverting
the narrative's first signifying unit, where 'low' struck against 'high'. The
reconciliation between father and son restores an equilibrium between 'low' and
'high', and the walk back home together, signifying 'middle', marks this
achievement of a suitably intermediate state. Flushed with triumph, the
structuralist rearranges his rulers and reaches for the next story.

In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002),

these are the things that structuralist critics can follow:

1. They analyse (mainly) prose narratives, relating the text to some larger
containing structure, such as:
(a) the conventions of a particular literary genre, or
(b) a network of intertextual connections, or
(c) a projected model of an underlying universal narrative structure, or
(d) a notion of narrative as a complex of recurrent patterns or motifs.
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 11
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

2. They interpret literature in terms of a range of underlying parallels with the

structures of language, as described by modern linguistics. For instance, the
notion of the 'mytheme', posited by Levi-Strauss, denoting the minimal units of
narrative 'sense', is formed on the analogy of the morpheme, which, in linguistics,
is the smallest unit of grammatical sense. An example of a morpheme is the 'ed'
added to a verb to denote the past tense.

3. They apply the concept of systematic patterning and structuring to the whole
field of Western culture, and across cultures, treating as 'systems of signs'
anything from Ancient Greek myths to brands of soap powder.

Deconstruction/Poststructuralist Theory

At some point in the late 1960s, structuralism gave birth to ‘poststructuralism’.

Some commentators believe that the later developments were already inherent in
the earlier phase. One might say that poststructuralism is simply a fuller working-out
of the implications of structuralism. But this formulation is not quite satisfactory,
because it is evident that poststructuralism tries to deflate the scientific pretensions
of structuralism.If structuralism was heroic in its desire to master the world of artificial
signs, poststructuralism is comic and anti-heroic in its refusal to take such claims
seriously. However, the poststructuralist mockery of structuralism is almost a self-
mockery: poststructuralists are structuralists who suddenly see the error of their
ways. (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker, 2005) According to Queddeng (2013), the
critic examines and tests assumptions supporting intellectual insight in order to
interrogate the ‘self-evident’ truths they are based on. It tests the legitimacy of the
contextual ‘bound’ understanding both presents and requires…It is a concept that
focuses on this instability of meaning, then, rises out of Jacques Derrida’s
recognition that in modern conceptions of knowledge there is temporal ‘decentering’
or a ‘rupture’ in the conventional order, a dramatic and decisive shift in traditional
relations to authority, what might be termed a radical challenge to all authority.

The analytical method known as deconstruction is most often associated

with Jacques Derrida, a French poststructuralist philosopher who discusses art
as well as written texts. Derrida opens up meanings, rather than fixing them
within structural patterns. But he shares with the structuralists the notion that a
work has no ultimate meaning conferred by its author. (Adams, 2011, p. 11)

Then, based from Barry (2002), below are the similarities and differences of
structuralism/semiotics and deconstruction/poststructuralism.

1. Origins
Structuralism derives ultimately from linguistics. Linguistics is a discipline
which has always been inherently confident about the possibility of establishing
objective knowledge. It believes that if we observe accurately, collect data
systematically, and make logical deductions then we can reach reliable
conclusions about language and the world. Structuralism inherits this confidently
scientific outlook: it too believes in method, system, and reason as being able to
establish reliable truths. By contrast, post-structuralism derives ultimately from
philosophy. Philosophy is a discipline which has always tended to emphasise the
difficulty of achieving secure knowledge about things. This point of view is
encapsulated in Nietzsche's famous remark 'There are no facts, only
interpretations'. Philosophy is, so to speak, sceptical by nature and usually
undercuts and questions commonsensical notions and assumptions. Its
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 12
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

procedures often begin by calling into question what is usually taken for granted
as simply the way things are. Post-structuralism inherits this habit of scepticism,
and intensifies it. It regards any confidence in the scientific method as naive, and
even derives a certain masochistic intellectual pleasure from knowing for certain
that we can't know anything for certain, fully conscious of the irony and paradox
which doing this entails.

2. Tone and Style

Structuralist writing tends towards abstraction and generalisation. It aims for
a detached, 'scientific coolness' of tone. Given its derivation from linguistic
science, this is what we would expect. An essay like Roland Barthes's 1966
piece 'Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative' (reprinted in Image,
Music, Text, ed. Stephen Heath, 1977) is typical of this tone and treatment, with
its discrete steps in an orderly exposition, complete with diagrams. The style is
neutral and anonymous, as is typical of scientific writing Post-structuralist writing,
by contrast, tends to be much more emotive. Often the tone is urgent and
euphoric, and the style flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Titles may well
contain puns and allusions, and often the central line of the argument is based on
a pun or a word-play of some kind. Often deconstructive writing fixes on some
'material' aspect of language, such as a metaphor used by a writer, or the
etymology of a word. Overall it seems to aim for an engaged warmth rather than
detached coolness.

3. Attitude to Language
Structuralists accept that the world is constructed through language, in the
sense that we do not have access to reality other than through the linguistic
medium. All the same, it decides to live with that fact and continue to use
language to think and perceive with. After all, language is an orderly system, not
a chaotic one, so realising our dependence upon it need not induce intellectual
despair.

By contrast, post-structuralism is much more fundamentalist in insisting upon

the consequences of the view that, in effect, reality itself is textual. Post-
structuralism develops what threaten to become terminal anxieties about the
possibility of achieving any knowledge through language. The verbal sign, in its
view, is constantly floating free of the concept it is supposed to designate. Thus,
the post-structuralist's way of speaking about language involves a rather
obsessive imagery based on liquids - signs float free of what they designate,
meanings are fluid, and subject to constant 'slippage' or 'spillage'. This linguistic
liquid, slopping about and swilling over unpredictably, defies our attempts to carry
signification carefully from 'giver' to 'receiver' in the containers we call words. We
are not fully in control of the medium of language, so meanings cannot be
planted in set places, like somebody planting a row of potato seeds; they can
only be randomly scattered or 'disseminated', like the planter walking along and
scattering seed with broad sweeps of the arm, so that much of it lands
unpredictably or drifts in the wind.

Likewise, the meanings words have can never be guaranteed one hundred
percent pure. Thus, words are always 'contaminated' by their opposites - you
can't define night without reference to day, or good without reference to evil. Or
else they are interfered with by their own history, so that obsolete senses retain a
troublesome and ghostly presence within present-day usage, and are likely to
materialise just when we thought it was safe to use them. Thus, a seemingly
innocent word like 'guest', is etymologically cognate with 'host is', which means
an enemy or a stranger, thereby inadvertently manifesting the always potentially
unwelcome status of the guest.
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 13
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Likewise, the long-dormant metaphorical bases of words are often

reactiviated by their use in philosophy or literature and then interfere with literal
sense, or with the stating of single meanings. Linguistic anxiety, then, is a
keynote of the post-structuralist outlook.

4. Project
The 'project' here means the fundamental aims of each movement, what it is
they want to persuade us of. Structuralism, firstly, questions our way of
structuring and categorising reality, and prompts us to break free of habitual
modes of perception or categorisation, but it believes that we can thereby attain a
more reliable view of things.

Post-structuralism is much more fundamental: it distrusts the very notion of

reason, and the idea of the human being as an independent entity, preferring the
notion of the 'dissolved' or 'constructed' subject, whereby what we may think of
as the individual is really a product of social and linguistic forces -that is, not an
essence at all, merely a 'tissue of textualities'. Thus, its torch of scepticism burns
away the intellectual ground on which the Western civilisation is built.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Adams (2011), discussed that the branch of psychology known as

psychoanalysis was originated by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in the late
nineteenth century. Then, Eagleton (1996) said that what has dominated human
history to date is the need to abhor; and for Freud that harsh necessity means that
we must repress some of our tendencies to pleasure and gratification. If we were not
called upon to work in order to survive, we might simply lie around all day doing
nothing. Every human being has to undergo this repression of what Freud named
the 'pleasure principle' by the 'reality principle', but for some of us, and arguably for
whole societies, the repression may become excessive and make us ill. We are
sometimes willing to forgo gratification to an heroic extent, but usually in the canny
trust that by deferring an immediate pleasure we will recoup it in the end, perhaps in
richer form. In addition, he also said that Freud looks at its implications for the
psychical life. The paradox or contradiction on which his work rests is that we come
to be what we are only by a massive repression of the elements which have gone
into our making. Furthermore, Freud believed that human beings are not aware of
these repressions.

In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002),

these are the things that Freudian psychoanalytic critics can follow:

1. They give central importance, in literary interpretation, to the distinction

between the conscious and the unconscious mind. They associate the literary
work's 'overt' content with the former, and the 'covert' content with the latter,
privileging the latter as being what the work is 'really' about, and aiming to
disentangle the two.

2. Hence, they pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, whether
these be (a) those of the author, or (b) those of the characters depicted in the
work.

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 14

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

2. They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of classic psychoanalytic

symptoms, conditions, or phases, such as the oral, anal, and phallic stages of
emotional and sexual development in infants.

3. They make large-scale applications of psychoanalytic concepts to literary

history in general, for example, Harold Bloom's book The Anxiety of Influence
(1973) sees the struggle for identity by each generation of poets, under the
'threat' of the greatness of its predecessors, as an enactment of the Oedipus
complex.

5. They identify a 'psychic' context for the literary work, at the expense of social
or historical context, privileging the individual 'psycho-drama' above the 'social
drama' of class conflict. The conflict between generations or siblings, or between
competing desires within the same individual looms much larger than conflict
between social classes,

Marxist Criticism and New Historicism

Selden, Widdowson&Brooker (2005) mentioned that Karl Marx himself made

important general statements about culture and society in the 1850s. Even so, it
is correct to think of Marxist criticism as a twentieth-century phenomenon. They
also discussed that Karl marx believed that People have been led to believe that
their ideas, their cultural life, their legal systems, and their religions were the
creations of human and divine reason, which should be regarded as the
unquestioned guides to human life. Marx reverses this formulation and argues
that all mental (ideological) systems are the products of real social and economic
existence. The material interests of the dominant social class determine how
people see human existence, individual and collective. Legal systems, for
example, are not the pure manifestations of human or divine reason, but
ultimately reflect the interests of the dominant class in particular historical periods.
Then, according to Queddeng (2013), it disrupt both the hierarchy of history as
superior to literature and the distance between the two. Instead of viewing history
as the determining context for literature, critics like George Lukacs and Raymond
Williams throughout the 20th century have conceived history as a field of
discourse in which literature and criticism make their own impact as political
forces and, in effect, participate in an historical dialects. He added that,
contemporary Marxist approaches demand that criticism must be political, not
simply to interpret but to change the world. Also, he explained that historicism is
the awareness that history, like a fictional narrative, exists in a dialogue with
something foreign or other to it that can never be contained or controlled by the
historian.

In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002),

these are the things that Marxist critics can follow:

1. They make a division between the 'overt' (manifest or surface) and 'covert'
(latent or hidden) content of a literary work (much as psychoanalytic critics do)
and then relate the covert subject matter of the literary work to basic Marxist
themes, such as class struggle, or the progression of society through various
historical stages, such as, the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism.

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 15

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Thus, the conflicts in King Lear might be read as being 'really' about the conflict
of class interest between the rising class (the bourgeoisie) and the falling class
(the feudal overlords).
2. Another method used by Marxist critics is to relate the context of a work to the
social-class status of the author. In such cases an assumption is made (which
again is similar to those made by psychoanalytic critics) that the author is
unaware of precisely what he or she is saying or revealing in the text.3. A third
Marxist method is to explain the nature of a whole literary genre in terms of the
social period which 'produced' it. For instance, The Rise of the Novel, by Ian
Watt, relates the growth of the novel in the eighteenth century to the expansion of
the middle classes during that period. The novel 'speaks' for this social class, just
as, for instance, Tragedy 'speaks for' the monarchy and the nobility, and the
Ballad 'speaks for' for the rural and semi-urban 'working class'.

3. A fourth Marxist practice is to relate the literary work to the social assumptions
of the time in which it is 'consumed', a strategy which is used particularly in the
later variant of Marxist criticism known as cultural materialism (see Chapter 9, pp.
182-9).

5. A fifth Marxist practice is the 'politicisation of literary form', that is, the claim
that literary forms are themselves determined by political circumstance. For
instance, in the view of some critics, literary realism carries with it an implicit
validation of conservative social structures: for others, the formal and metrical
intricacies of the sonnet and the iambic pentameter are a counterpart of social
stability, decorum, and order.

Feminism

According to Queddeng (2013), this is a challenge to male-centered thinking.

Feminist criticism seeks on the one hand to investigate and analyze the differing
representations of women and men in literary texts and, on the other hand, to
rethink literary history by exploring an often marginalized tradition of women’s
writing. Feminist criticism is concerned to question and challenge conventional
notions of masculinity and femininity; to explore ways in which such conventions
are inscribed in a largely patriarchal canon; and to consider the extent to which
writing, language and even literary form itself are themselves bound up with
issues of gender difference. (Bennet & Royle, 2004) Then, Selden, Widdowson &
Brooker (2005) discussed that feminist criticism, in all its many and various
manifestations, has also attempted to free itself from naturalized patriarchal
notions of the literary and the literary-critical.

In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002),

these are the things feminist critics can follow:

1. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women.

2. Revalue women's experience.
3. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women.
4. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'.
5. Examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life, with a view to
breaking them down, seeing, reading as a political act, and showing the extent of
patriarchy.
8. Recognise the role of language in making what is social and constructed
seem transparent and 'natural'.

9. Raise the question of whether men and women are 'essentially' different
because of biology, or are socially constructed as different.
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 16
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

10. Explore the question of whether there is a female language, an ecriture

feminine, and whether this is also available to men.

11. 'Re-read' psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of female and male
identity.

10. Question the popular notion of the death of the author, asking whether there
are only 'subject positions ... constructed in discourse', or whether, on the
contrary, the experience (e.g. of a black or lesbian
writer) is central.

11. Make clear the ideological base of supposedly 'neutral' or 'mainstream'

literary interpretations.

Queer Theory

During the 1980s, the term ‘queer’ was reclaimed by a new generation of
political activists involved in Queer nation and protest groups such as ActUp and
Outrage, though some lesbian and gay cultural activists and critics who adopted
the term in the 1950s and 1960s continue to use it to describe their particular
sense of marginality to both mainstream and minority cultures. In the 1990s,
‘Queer Theory’ designated a radical rethinking of the relationship between
subjectivity, sexuality and representation. Its emergence in that decade owes
much to the earlier work of queer critics such as Ann Snitow (1983), Carol Vance
(1984) and Joan Nestle (1988), but also to the allied challenge of diversity
initiated by Black and Third World critics. In addition, it gained impetus from
postmodern theories with which it overlapped in signifificant ways. Teresa de
Lauretis, in the Introduction to the ‘Queer Theory’ issue of differences (1991),
traced the emergence of the term ‘queer’ and described the impact of
postmodernism on lesbian and gay theorizing. (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker,
2005, p. 269)

In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002),

these are the things lesbian/gay critics can follow:

1. Identify and establish a canon of 'classic' lesbian/gay writers whose work

constitutes a distinct tradition. These are, in the main, twentieth-century writers,
such as (for lesbian writers in Britain) Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West,
Dorothy Richardson, Rosamund Lehmann, and Radclyffe Hall.
2.
2. Identify lesbian/gay episodes in mainstream work and discuss them as such
(for example, the relationship between Jane and Helen in Jane Eyre), rather than
reading same-sex pairings in non-specific ways, for instance, as symbolising two
aspects of the same character (Zimmerman).

3. Set up an extended, metaphorical sense of 'lesbian/gay' so that it connotes a

moment of crossing a boundary, or blurring a set of categories. All such 'liminal'
moments mirror the moment of selfidentification as lesbian or gay, which is
necessarily an act of conscious resistance to established norms
and boundaries.

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 17

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

3. Expose the 'homophobia' of mainstream literature and criticism, as seen in

ignoring or denigrating the homosexual aspects of the work of major canonical
figures, for example, by omitting overtly homosexual love lyrics from selections or
discussions of the poetry of W. H. Auden (Mark Lilly).

12. Foreground homosexual aspects of mainstream literature which have

previously been glossed over, for example the strongly homo-erotic tenderness
seen in a good deal of First World War poetry.

6. Foreground literary genres, previously neglected, which significantly influenced

ideals of masculinity or femininity, such as the nineteenth-century adventure
stories with a British 'Empire' setting (for example those by Rudyard Kipling and
Rider Haggard) discussed by Joseph Bristow in Empire Boys (Routledge, 1991).

Sample Reading:

To be able to write your own literary criticism, choose a literary work that you
want use. Make sure to read it comprehensively to be able to choose theories for
your literary criticism. Keep in mind that you should be knowlegable about your
chosen theory. In one literary work, you can use many theories depending on
what you want to focus.

The sample below is the discussion of Villa and Talabong (2011) in their
study about the female protagonists in the two bestselling books“Twilight” by
Stephenie Meyer and “Hush Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick. They utilized Feminism
theory to analyze the female characters; Bella and Nora in the two novels. As you
read this, take note on how they used Feminism theory to explain the impact of
their character to the story, to show their portrayal on women, and to highlight
their strengths and weaknesses as women. Also, have a keen eye on the
application of the theory to fully justify the Bella and Nora as characters.

THE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS: AN ANALYSIS ON THE PORTRAYAL OF

WOMEN IN POPULAR LITERATURE
By: Ma. Myron Zina V. Talabong and Joanne Kathrine C. Villa

The Portrayal of Women

“To emancipate woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man, not to deny them to
her; let her have her independent existence and she will continue nonetheless to exist him; mutually
recognizing each other as subject, each will yet remain for the other another.
-Simone Beauvoir

In the past, women have always been consigned to be the background by the
society. They were the caretakers of the house, the one who brought up the children
and cooked for everybody. These contributions of women are not given respect and
importance. Women are seen in the cult of domesticity. Women never have a chance to
develop any other talent except for the household chores. Women do not have much
say in decision making too, either in the family or the society. Men first and women
second – that has always been the norms which societies have to follow.
As discussed in the book ‘Gender Stereotypes and Roles’, for women, there
are at least three distinct stereotypes: the housewife (the traditional woman), the
professional woman (independent, ambitious, self-confident), and the playboy bunny
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 18
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

(sex object). Although these three types of women have differed they still have
commonalities like they were all expected to be concerned to have children. According
to Smith (1974), “within sociology, the study of women has been subsumed under the
general headings of family or sex and gender studies, while substantive work in the field
has focused on men and men’s lives.” Ollenburger (1992) supported this as he stated
that, “Women as object of study are largely ignored. Only in the field of marriage and the
family is she seen to exist. Her place in sociology, in other words, the traditional one
assigned to her by the larger society: women’s place is in the home.” With this social
context of women, it can be seen that women have always been looked as someone
who is only active at home and nothing more outside of it.
Traditionally, stereotypically masculine traits have been viewed more
positively and as more socially desirable than stereotypically feminine traits. As cited on
Max Weber’s article on ‘Status Conflict’, “women’s status in society could now be
analyzed in terms of their disadvantages in both economic and social power, and the
construction of social prestige as it related to gender and occupational roles.” Since
women have been generally described as weak on competency cluster, jobs given to
them are limited. In Weber’s article it is added that women’s position in society is derived
from unequal distributions of wealth and power thus making them less important.
To counter all these settlements and the society and to get the women equal rights
and opportunities as men, a social movement known as “feminism” started in the
western world.
Feminist theory has said to have various manifestations as Roman Selden, et al.
explains that “feminism and feminist criticism may be better termed a cultural politics
than ‘theory’ or ‘theories’ ” because the term itself signifies or refers as male, ‘the hard,
abstract, avant-gardism of intellectual work.’ But for Charlotte Bunch in the article ‘Not by
Degrees Feminist Theory and Education,’ “theory is not just a body of facts or a set of
personal opinions. It involves explanations and hypotheses that are based on available
knowledge and experience.” She even added that “theory doesn’t necessarily progress
in a linear fashion, but examining its components is useful in understanding existing
political theory as well as in developing new insights”. The feminist theory starts with
women’s negative experiences in the Patriarchal society. It provokes the women to
stand on their feet and to voice out all of their sentiments. Feminism as a whole
“provides a basis for understanding every area of our lives, and a feminist perspective
can affect the politically, culturally, economically and spiritually.”
The history of feminism can be traced in the three basic positions. According to
Joan Kelly in Paula Treichler and Cheris Kramarae in their article in ‘The Challenge of
Local Feminisms Womens Movement in Global Perspective’,these three positions are
first conscious stand in opposition to male defamation and mistreatment of women; a
dialectical opposition to misogyny, second, a belief that both sexes are culturally, and
not just biologically formed; a belief that women were a social group shaped to fit male
notions about a defective sex and lastly, an outlook that transcended the accepted value
systems if the time by exposing and opposing the prejudice and narrowness; a desire for
a truly general conception of humanity. The treatment and perception of society leads to
different faces of Feminism. These different faces needs “a solid feminist theory (that)
would enable us to develop visions and plans for change that sustain people engaged in
day-today political activity”.
The different feminist theory approaches in women’s studies that some sociologists
include are the liberal-feminism, Marxist feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism,
cultural feminism, and lastly the post structural feminism. These theories are similar in
that they all focus on women’s oppression in the society however they have their own
definite and different explanations on the causes of women’s oppression.
As Mill discuses on the book ‘Feminist Approaches to the Study of Women’, “liberal
feminism works was on the equal capacity and capability on women.” They thought that
women were always inferior or superior and having the differences of the two gender that
attributably to individual intellectual and emotional differences. The solution for change is for
women to gain opportunities primarily on the institutions of education and economics. Mill
added that the focus of liberal feminism is on the individual and on equality.
Marxist feminist tackles the oppression of women by the beginnings of private
property and it linked to the social organization particularly on the economic order. ‘The
Origin of Family, Private Property and the State’ by Friedrich Engels, a book about
Marxist Feminism presented the outline between the introduction of private property and
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 19
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

women’s oppression on the society. On his article he also mentioned the “connection
between the patriarchal oppression in the family and the oppression of the proletariat by
bourgeoisie”. He added that there is “connection between patriarchy and capitalism in
Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World” because in capitalism the ability to impose the
notion of the family, childhood, feminity, and sexuality reinforces and maintains the
power of bourgeois man.
In Radical Feminism women are described as oppressed by patriarchal social
systems. According to Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialect of Sex, he argues that
women’s oppression is biologically based since women are tied to the childbirth and
childbearing processes which continually place them in positions dependence on men to
survive. It is supported on Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics when she discussed her view of
Patriarchy which she sees as pervasive and which demands a systematic overview-as a
political institution. It is implied that patriarchy subordinates the female to the male or
treats the female as an inferior male, and this power is exerted, directly or indirectly, in
civil and domestic life to constrain women.
The solutions for change involve radical social changes of the societal institutions
are part of the framework of Social-feminist. Juliet Mitchell’s books, Woman’s State
conclude that it “laid the groundwork as a consequence of both patriarchal and class
oppression” because it identifies the central socialist-feminist constructs for analyzing
the dimensions of oppression like in production, reproduction, socialization and
sexuality. On the other hand on the book of Mithchell Psychoanalysis and Feminism she
claims that “the concepts of patriarchy and capitalism are clearly juxtaposed” because it
can be rejected that notion of being equal access that eliminates women’s oppression.
Mithchell also identifies ‘ideological mode of patriarchy as separate and distinct from the
economic mode of production’. Both of their sayings were the forms oppression that
needs to liberate the women.
The focus of Cultural Feminism is that feminity is the most desirable form of human
behavior. Brownmiller supported this and concluded that, “in a rejection of the masculine
ideal and the labels placed on feminity by the patriarchal world, cultural feminist redefine
feminity in a positive framework. Woman’s existence as a separate and unique reality
notion is discussed on the article ‘Cultural Feminism’, it is being said that it provides (1)
an integrating system, pivotal to kinship; (2) a love and/or duty ethos; and (3) a culture
bounded by a distinct awareness of verbal/nonverbal behavior or distinctive
technologies. Cultural feminist affirm that there are women by defining women in terms of
their activities or cultural attributes.
On Poststructionalist Feminism, Simone de Beauvoir discusses “how man has
come to define himself as the ‘self’ and woman as the ‘other” on his book ‘The Second
Sex’ because woman has no difference from man but in terms of inferiority to man. But
for Tong he pointed that, “If woman (the other) threatens man (the self) then in order for
the man (the self) to be free, he must subordinate the woman (the other)”. The
poststructural feminists focus on individual solutions even through the key to oppression
is often structural, such as economic discrimination.
Theories which can be used for activism to assist some women may in fact be used
to oppress others. As stated earlier these theories have similarities, they all want
equality, recognition and respect to women but they have their own arguments.

The Similarities and Differences of the Female Protagonists

Isabella “Bella” Swan and Nora Grey are two female protagonists of the novels of
“Twilight” and “Hush Hush” respectively. They have embodied the unusual in the usual
characters in a novel. They have been popular that they needed to be characterized
upon as of their representation as a woman.
Women in general are always searching for answers. In order to get information
they need to do something. According to the book ‘Gender, Stereotype and Roles’,
“Women have always been a curious being.”
“‘Who was the boy with the reddish brown hair?’ I peeked at him from the corner of my eye, a
nd he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had today-he had a
slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.”
- Bella, Twilight, p.22

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 20

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Bella was curious to know why Edward was acting weird about her being around
him. With this, she tried to know and search for reasons why he was like that. Like Bella,
Nora was curious to know why Patch seemed to know her. Both Edward and Patch act
different when they were with them. Bella and Nora were puzzled with their identity
because they were always there when something bad is happening.
“More freedom to be himself. And those black eyes were getting to me. They were like magnets clinging to my every
move. I swallowed discreetly and tried to ignore the queasy tap dance in my stomach. I couldn’t quite put my finger on
it, but something about Patch wasn’t right. Something about him wasn’t normal. Something wasn’t….safe.”
Nora, Hush Hush, p. 25

As female, they weren’t used to men who act different around them. They were
more than curious to know what the men in their lives were thinking about them.
As mentioned by Margaret Sanger she said, “Woman must not accept; she must
challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must
reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.” Given the fact that Bella and
Nora were curious to Edward and Patch, they made way on finding who they really are. On
page 122, Bella tried to ask Jacob on what does he know about the Cullen’s. She even did
some researches on the internet to support her intuitions. She also did ask Edward directly.
Nora as well has made her own way on doing her researches. On page 79 she sneaked into
the office of the secretary in their school to look for Patch’s student profile. She also tried to
research about him on the library and asked him directly. The resourcefulness of a girl can
be seen here. Despite the fact that she was hindered on leading to the real story of the boys,
they still managed to do it no matter what happened.
The straight forward attitude of a woman can be seen in Bella and Nora when they
were able to say what’s on their mind when they were mad and when they are not. As
mentioned by Hermione Gingold, a feminist, she said that, “Fighting is essentially a
masculine idea; a woman’s weapon is her tongue.” This was evident on page 64 when
Bella was mad that Edward won’t tell her how did saved her from the car accident,
“All I know is that you weren’t anywhere near me – Tyler didn’t see you, either, so don’t tell me I hit my head too hard.
That ran was going to crush us both – and it didn’t, and your hands left dents in the side of it – and you left a dent in
the other car, and you’re not hurt at all – and the van should have smashed my legs, but you were holding it up…”I
could hear how crazy it sounded, and I couldn’t continue. I was so mad I could feel the tears coming; I tried to force
them back by grinding my teeth together.
Bella, Twilight, p.64

This can also be shown on Nora’s sentiments when she was having a fight
with Patch because she thought he was lying at her.
“You lied. You brought me here so you could kill me. That’s what Dabria said you want to do. Well what are you
waiting for?” I didn’t have a clue where I was going with this, and I didn’t care. I was spitting words in an attempt to
keep my horror at bay. “You’ve been trying to kill me all along. Right from the start. Are you going to kill me now? “I
stared at him, hard and unblinking, trying to keep tears from spilling as I remembered the fateful day he’d walked into
my life.
Nora, Hush Hush, p.298

It was implied in here how woman show her anger verbally rather than hurting
someone.Bella and Nora’s character here have wanted to be heard. They use their
words as a way of releasing their anger. They have wanted to let Edward and Patch
know their opinions and feelings about the things that affected them. And if they were
not talking about their feelings, they resort to keeping their thoughts to themselves.
Knowing that Edward and Patch was not the typical human being a Vampire and an
Angel they managed to accept it. On page 195 Bella thought to herself,
“About three things I was absolutely positive. First Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I
didn’t know how potent that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and
irrevocably in love with him.”
-Bella, Twilight, p.195

It was almost the same thought, Nora has on page 305 as she narrates,

“I knew Patch lived a life of closed doors and harbored secrets. I wasn’t presumptuous enough to think even half of
them revolved around me. Patch lived in different life outside the one he shared with me. Mora than once I’d
speculated what his other life might be like.” I always got the feeling the less I knew about it, the better. -Nora, Hush
Hush, p.305
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 21
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

On Carl Jung’s female archetype, Bella and Nora could be considered as the
companion. According to Jung, this archetype is loyal, tenacious and unselfish in their
service to a more authorities figure. In this relationship she provides him with emotional
and practical support to enable her partner to concentrate on his mission. Without doubt
they have let their man be what they really are. They didn’t complain and never did on
bringing them down. Not even when they’re mad at them.
When in danger, both Bella and Nora have their own choice on saving those people
who were close to them. Bella was caught in dilemma between saving herself and her
family but chose the latter otherwise, despite the agony of her wanting to see Edward.
She went out from the protection of Alice and Jasper by following the exact instruction of
James who wanted to kill her. He even wrote a letter to Edward in case something might
happen to her. On page 432 she wrote,
“I love you. I am sorry. He has my mom, and I have to try. I know it may not work. I am so very, very sorry. Don’t be
angry with Alice and Jasper. If I get away from them it will be a miracle. Tell them thank you for me. Alice especially,
please. And please, please don’t come after him. That’s what he wants. I think. I can’t bear it if anyone has to be hurt
because of me, especially you. Please this is the only I can ask you now. For me. I love you. Forgive me. Bella.” Bella,
Twilight, p.432

It was a heroic act for both Bella and Nora as Nora made way on saving her best
friend Vee from those who tried to kill her despite of Patch telling her to stay on the car
and he will try to do something to save Vee. Nora can’t let herself do nothing that’s why
on page 353 when Elliot called her on her phone she decided to go,
“With my hearth in my throat, I got out the car. I looked up at the dark windows of the school. I didn’t think that Elliot
knew Patch was inside. His voice came across impatient, not angry or irritated. My only hope was that Patch had a
plan and would make sure nothing happened to me or Vee. The moon was clouded over, and under a shadow of a fear
I walked up to the east door.”
Nora, Hush Hush, p.353
With this, they can be considered as “the heroine’. According to Carl Jung, the
heroine is characterized with theawakening of her inner strength and power so she can
overcome great obstacles. These acts of bravery often benefit not just the heroine but
her family or group.The bravery that two female protagonist showed as evident. They
might be hesitant at first but they do what they think they have to do.
Before, women were deprived for the right to education but now they weren’t. Bella
and Nora were two mentally competent beings.

“We had a pop quiz on Wuthering Heights. It was straight forward, very easy.
Bella, Twilight, p.38

It was even presented on there that Bella was able to answer the different phases of
mitosis on their Biology class. She even knows some classic novels and was able to
write a paper about it. Nora on the other hand is good in her classes too.
“I took inventory of the feeling playing out inside me. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t even all that lonely but I
was little bit restless about my Biology assignment. I told Patch I wouldn’t call, and six hour ago I’d meant it. All I could
think now was that I didn’t want to fail. Biology was my toughest subject. My grade tottered problematically between A and
B. in my mind, that was a difference between a full and a half scholarship in my future.”
Nora, Hush Hush, p.20

Nora was presented in the novel as a girl who is serious with her studies. She
wanted to have good grades because she wanted to have a full scholarship for her
college. Her mom was a single parent since her dad died and studying was her way of
helping her mother.
Woman is said to be warm loving. According to Broverman in his article on his book
‘Gender, Stereo and Roles’, feminist is associated with warmth, expressiveness, and
nurturance. This could be related to Bella’s mother and how she views her as a woman.

“She looks a like a lot of me, but she’s prettier,”I said. He raised his eyebrows. “I have too much Charlie is me. She’s
more outgoing than I am,and braver. She’s irresponsible and slightly eccentric, and she is very unpredictable cook.
She’s my best friend.” I stopped. Talking about her was making me depressed.
Bella, Twilight, p. 105

Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 22

Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Since Bella’s mom and her dad separated when she was just a baby, her mother
had raised her all by herself. For this reason they have been close enough as mother-
daughter and best of friends as well. She said good things about her and there’s a
indication here that she idolize her mom because she see her as a brave and
independent given the fact that she was raised alone. And now that she decided to live
with her dad, it saddens her to think about her mom.
On Nora’s side however, she was closer with her dad. Unfortunately her dad died
on an accident so she was left with her mom.
“My mom works for Hugo Renaldi Auction Company, coordinating estate and antique auctions all along the East
Coast. This week she was in upstate New York. Her job required a lot of travel, and she paid Dorothea to cook and
clean, but I was pretty sure the fine print on Dorothea’s job description included keeping a watchful, parental eye on
me.”
Nora, Huhs Hush, p.19

Unlike Bella, Nora is not as close with her mom because of her work. They seldom meet
because their time won’t permit so. Also one could see the relationship of Electra Complex.
According to Debasmita Chanda’s article ‘Electra Complex and Oedipus Complex’ she
stated that, there is a common theory that an attraction automatically develops from one sex
to the opposite sex. A child’s get a long best with his/her mother/father before he develops
any connection with others around him. The instinct is always there. So far this reason the
son is attached to his opposite sex that is his mother.
In the same manner, a daughter is likely to get attracted to her father. This felling is
quite simple; however it can sometimes get very complex and can then become a
source of great concern.”
The Electra Complex was explained by Nora’s contemplation when her mom, said
that if she lose the job she would sell their,
“But this is our house, all my memories and here, the memories of my dad was here. I couldn’t believe she didn’t feel
the same way. I would do whatever it took to stay.”
Nora, Hush Hush, p.187

“I’m afraid I’ll forget what he look like. Not in pictures, but hanging around on a Saturday working in sweats,
making scrambled eggs.”
Nora, Hush Hush, p.189

In here, though the relationship of Nora and his dad were not elaborated, the emotion
she’s trying to evoke was she was missing him. Also it was implied that she was secretive to
her mom when she went out with Patch and she didn’t told her mom about it.
As opposed to Nora, Bella is not close to her dad. As mentioned earlier, her parents
separated when she was young. When she decided to live with him in Forks there was
an awkward moment for them.
“But I was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn’t know
what there was to say regardless. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision-like my mother before me,
I hadn’t made a secret of my distaste for Forks.”
-Bella, Twilight, p.5

Domesticity has been tackled on the two novels but was shown on different sides.
With Bella, it was shown when she found out that her dad didn’t know how to cook so
she decided that she should do it.
“Last night I’d discovered that Charlie couldn’t cook much besides fried eggs and bacon. So I requested that I be
assigned kitchen detail for the duration of my stay. I also found out that he had no fool in the house.
So I had my shopping lists.”
Bella, Twilight, p.31

The act of domesticity as a female was shown in here. In Marxist feminism it stated
that, “women’s history of their material and economic oppression, and especially of how
the family and women’s domestic labor are constructed by and reproduce the sexual
division of labor.” But even if Bella was the one who do this, it was on her own accord
because she permits it to happen. She understands that her dad was the town sheriff so
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 23
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

she felt it’s the least thing she could do. Nora on the either hand wasn’t able to do
household chores because they have a house keeper since her mom wasn’t always
around. Dorothea’s go on their house early in the morning and leave when Nora arrives
at home.
“At 9 o’clock Dorothea’s finish for the evening and locked up on her way out. I flash the porch lights twice to say
goodbye; they must have penetrated the fog, because she answered with a honk. I was alone.” -Nora, Hush Hush,p.20
The act of domesticity here is presented in two ways. First, Bella does the chores
because she understands that her dad doesn’t know how to cook. Second, Nora wasn’t
able to do the chores because someone does it for her. According to Rosalind
Delmar,women always have a choice, and the choice was made by her alone. Given the
statements above, even if they were exercising domesticity or not it was because of the
choice they made.
Yet the Twilight Universe, for some reason, centers on Bella. Aside from her obvious,
helpless beauty and the occasionally sarcastic retort, she doesn’t seem to offer anything to
hold onto by way of substance. Bella’s most obviously frequently quality, when with Edward
and when without, is her undying devotion to him. This could be related to Carl Jung’s female
archetype ‘the lover”. According to Jung, the lover represents passion and selfless devotion
to another person. It also extends to the things that make our hearts sing, like music, art or
nature. The shadow aspect is obsessive passion that completely takes over and negatively
impacts on your health and self-esteem. Whatever anyone is saying at her she is still under
Edwards spell. This is an exact opposite to Nora and her feelings to Patch, her independency
from Patch had restricted the situation on falling for him. It was never clear that they were
having affair because their romantic feelings was late established in the book. It was implied
how important Patch is on her life because he was ought to protect her in the end but they
already had an understanding.
A character is one of the most important elements in a story. They are the life of the
story. In Twilight, Bella’s character is round-at first. According to Baritugo (2007), a
rounded character is anyone who has a complex personality; he or she is often
portrayed as a conflicted and contradictory person. Bella’s character seemed to be dull
at first but as you read the entire story, she actually has many characteristics but one
personality stood out and that’s her undying love for Edward. With her undying love for
him, her characteristics fall out and became flat. A flat character is the opposite of a
round character. This literary personality is notable for one kind of personality trait or
characteristic. Bella’s character was interesting at first given that the tone she was using
in the story was sarcasm. She’s not the typical high school student who wanted attention
and that made her different. But as Edward came to her life, her character started to fall
in one place, which is a girl who is seriously in love with someone and as the novel ends
she was still like that.
Nora’s character on the other hand is dynamic. According to Baritugo (2007), a
dynamic character is a person who changes over time, usually as a result of resolving a
central conflict or facing a major crisis. Most dynamic characters tend to be central
rather than peripheral characters, because resolving the conflict is the major role of
central characters. In here, it was said earlier that the conflict of Hush Hush mostly
happened because of Nora’s trust issues. She doesn’t trust Patch that much. She was
presented as a strong character and was enhanced when it was revealed by the end of
the book that she was not just a human being but another mythical creature herself-a
nephilim. It was explained in the book that a nephilim was made when an angel made
love with a human and had a child. The child is the nephilim. With this, she wasn’t just
an ordinary person that made her totally different from Bella.
Romantic fiction has been popular since then because of the image of the female
protagonist portray on a story. On Janice Radway’s article it was written that, “According to
Smithon women, The ideal romance is one which an intelligent and independent woman with
a good sense of humor is overwhelmed, after much suspicion and distrust, and some cruelty
and violence, by the love of an intelligent, tender, and good-humored man, who in the course
of their relationship is transformed from an emotional pre-literate to someone who can care
for her and nurture her in ways that traditionally we would expect only from woman to a man.
In here both Bella and Nora was presented in a way that the popular reader could relate to.
Stepehenie Meyer, the author of Twilight even said that she created the character of Bella as
someone who can every normal girl relate
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 24
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

to when faced with an enigmatic vampire. Like Bella, Nora is an ordinary girl only with
greater courage and late established mythical creature as a nephilim.
Regarding feminism, Foss (1999) pointed out on his book ‘Feminist Rhetorical
Theories’ that, “Feminism for us is not an abstract philosophy but a way of living our
lives by acting in ways that allow others to make choices, that affirm them and their
perspectives, and that do not oppress and exploit.” They have their own beliefs; see
things in their eyes and mind of their own. The decisions made by both Bella and Nora
in their lives by the end of the book were solely made by them. Nobody dictates them
what to do. These two characters showed many that women shouldn’t let others control
their lives. As what Henry David Thoreau believes “a man more right than his neighbor
constitutes a majority of one.” Stand to what you believe in, even others do not believe
in you. To make a CHOICE always matters to women.

Plot and the Female Protagonists

The plot of Twilight and Hush Hush revolves around the story of how a mythical
creature and an ordinary human being work their relationship out and how it becomes a
threat to the life of the other. According to Baritugo (2007), plot is the arrangement of
events to achieve an intended effect consisting of a series of carefully devised and
interrelated actions that progress through a struggle of opposing forces, called conflict,
to a climax and a denouement. This is different from story or story line which is the order
of events as they occur.
Both were set in sophomore year in High school. It was given fact as the characters said
it themselves. Also they both have courses on biology and that is for second year. It also
showed the issues of teenagers which are teenage love, boys, teen angst, studies and
self–seeking. With all of these components, the female protagonist of both novels has
shown their strengths and weaknesses. Both were able to face the conflict given to them
by the author. Although on some conflicts they weren’t successful. They have even
defied feminity in some case, but still they have managed to figure it out to themselves.
Looking closely, we might see the facade of Bella as weak; she was generally
submissive to Edward. But she was not imposed to act like that. She chose to be
submissive for him. She was like that because she loved him. In that matter we can see
her strong point as she chose Edward though she knew it would be dangerous. She
made it her way to be with him. She wanted him and she worked hard to get him. Not
every female protagonist can be like her.
Nora on the other hand is as strong as her personality was described by the author.
Her intelligence had made her cautious to Patch. He lured her on coming to him but she
endlessly struggled around him. She was not submissive at him, but she knows how to
listen. She didn’t even need the help of Patch to save her from time to time. Her general
characteristics could have been “always curious”. The conflict of the story came from her
curiosity but she managed to put up a fight on every single of them and succeeded.
The sad and eventual reality of the novel is that the Twilight universe only appears to
center on Bella by virtue of the importance of her life (or death), and the fact that she
narrates, when in actuality the Twilight universe centers on Edward. The sudden
overwhelming importance of Bella’s life is first established by Edward, and then is
intensified by him; so truly, the only reason the Twilight seems to center on Bella is her
narration. This is why Bella seems to fade to a stop without Edward nearby, the story
isn’t about her, even though she’s telling it, so she ceases to exist without Edward in
frame. The events in Bella’s life have nothing to do with her, and have only been god-
like accidents to bring her closer to Edward.
It is also the same as in Hush Hush, the whole story appeared to center on Nora by
also virtue of the importance of her life or (death), and the fact that she also narrates,
when reality the Hush Hush universe focus on Patch. Like Bella, the sudden importance
and danger of her life was first established by Patch, and then revealing her the truth
about her past in the end. But unlike Bella she didn’t fade to a stop when Patch isn’t
around her as she also interacts with the characters around her. She wasn’t always
thinking about Patch, she also thinks about her friends and family. It just so happen that
every event that they were not together was also connected to Patch that will be seen by
the end of the book.
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada,MA 25
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature and Humanities Department
 GEC 13
LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

References:

Adams, L. (2011). A History of Western Art. 5 th ed. New York: McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc.
Barry, P. (2002). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester
University Press.
Bennett, A. and N. Royle. (2004). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism, and Theory. 3 rd ed.
Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.

Eagleton,T. (1996). Literary Theory: An Introduction. 2 nd ed. Blackwell Publishing.

Holman, C. H. (1992) A Handbook to Literature 6th ed. Indiana:The Odyssey Press, Inc.
Queddeng, (2013). Literature of the Philippines. Lucban, Quezon: Southern Luzon State
University.

Selden, R., P. Widdowson,& P. Brooker. (2005). A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary

Theory. 5th ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.
Smith, K. (nd). Literary Criticism Primer: A Guide to the Critical Approaches to Literature.
Baltimore County Public Schools.

Talabong, M. M. Z. and J. K. C. Villa. (2011). The Female Protagonists: An Analysis on the

Portrayal of Women in Popular Literature.
Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide. 2 nd ed. Routledge Taylor
&Francis Group.