Annette Kolodny (August 21, 1941 – September 11, 2019) was an American
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
literary critic
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
and
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
, held the position of College of Humanities Professor Emerita of American Literature and Culture at the University of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
in
Tucson. Her major scholarly writings examined the experiences of women on the American frontiers and the projection of female imagery onto the American landscape. Her other writings examined some aspects of feminism after the 1960s; the revision of dominant themes in
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Schol ...
; and the problems faced by women and minorities in the American academy.
Biography
Kolodny was born in New York City. Capping what was already a long and distinguished career, in 2012 Annette Kolodny published ''In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery'' (Duke University Press). The influential magazine ''Indian Country Today'' immediately named it as one of the 12 most important books in Native American Studies published in 2012. The Western Literature Association awarded the book the Thomas Lyon Prize as "the best book in Western literary and cultural studies published in 2012." Professor Kolodny had earlier made her mark in the field of Native American Studies with the publication of the long-lost 1893 masterpiece of Native American literature,
Joseph Nicolar
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
's ''The Life and Traditions of the Red Man'' (Duke University Press, 2007). This new edition included an interpretive analysis of Nicolar's text as well as a fascinating history of the
Penobscot Nation
The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic pr ...
in Maine. These two latest books mark the culmination of a scholarly career that began with studies of the American frontiers and moved into breakthrough examinations of trans-Atlantic contacts between Europeans and Native Americans.
Kolodny was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to Esther Rifkind Kolodny and David Kolodny.
[Jay, Gregory (ed.), ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988, p. 211.] She did her undergraduate work at Brooklyn College, from which she graduated
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
in 1962. After graduation, she took a position on the editorial staff at ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
''. Kolodny left to return to graduate studies in 1964, citing a desire “to teach people to think critically and because she wanted to be able to publish her own ideas, not merely report the ideas of others."
Her
M.A. and
Ph.D. work were completed at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, and she earned the latter degree in 1969.
["Annette Kolodny", Leitch, Vincent B. (ed.), ''The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001, p. 2143.] Her first teaching position at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
was cut short as she left after a year to move to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
with her husband, whose
draft board appeal for
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objec ...
status for the duration of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
was rejected.
Finding a position at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...
, she helped develop western Canada’s first accredited interdisciplinary
women’s studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppressi ...
program before returning to the United States in 1974 to teach at the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College ...
.
[Jay, p. 212.]
In
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, she wrote her first major work of feminist eco-criticism, ''The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters'' (1975). While the book got positive reviews and pioneered the field of feminist
ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...
, Kolodny was denied promotion and
tenure in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire. (Richter 1387) Active in the student movements while in Berkeley, she continued to advocate for the right to establish a program in women’s studies. She later
sued the University of New Hampshire charging sex discrimination and anti-Semitism.
[Leitch, p. 2144.] She settled with the "largest financial award in history in a case of this kind".
She used this money to establish the Legal Fund of the Task Force on Discrimination for the
National Women's Studies Association
The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is an organization founded in 1977, made up of scholars and practitioners in the field of women's studies also known as women's and gender studies, feminist studies, and related names in the 21st c ...
(NWSA),
an organization she had helped found, and served as director of the task force from 1980 to 1985.
The Task Force is now renamed Feminists Against Academic Discrimination within the NWSA.
Kolodny taught at several universities, including the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
and
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
before being named Dean of the College of Humanities at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
in
Tucson. Following her tenure as dean, which spanned from 1988 to 1993, Kolodny was named College of Humanities Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Arizona. She was a Professor Emerita of Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
In 1993 she was elected to lifetime membership in the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Unive ...
.
Her books won many awards both in the United States and abroad. Over the course of her scholarly career, Kolodny has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, and others. She retired from the University of Arizona in July 2007 and has continued an active professional life as a consultant in higher education policy issues and as a scholar of American literature and culture. She died on September 11, 2019 in
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
.
Works
Kolodny’s first two books were ''The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1975) and ''The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 ''(University of North Carolina Press, 1984); both of these texts deal with
environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...
concerns and the historic destruction of the land (Jay 217). Based on her experience as a senior administrator in higher education, Kolodny published ''Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century'' (Duke University Press, 1998), which "details the extent to which women and non-white students are still outsiders on American campuses."
The book also examines the status of the humanities disciplines in higher education, the value of tenure, and the need for family friendly policies on campus. It is a book about needed educational innovations in the twenty-first century.
Kolodny is also well known for two essays published in 1980: "Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism" (''Feminist Studies'', Spring 1980) and "A Map for Re-Reading: Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts" (''New Literary History'', Spring 1980). Of these, "Dancing Through the Minefield" is the most well-known, and has been called "the most reprinted essay of American feminist literary criticism".
It has been translated and reprinted worldwide.
In 2007, Kolodny published a long-lost masterpiece of Native American literature, Joseph Nicolar’s ''The Life and Traditions of the Red Man'' (Duke University Press), originally published in 1893. Nicolar’s work traces the history of his people, the Penobscot Nation, from the first moments of creation through the arrival of the white man. Kolodny’s reprint of this important work includes a history of the Penobscot Nation and an interpretive introduction to the text. It was stipulated that the royalties from this text go to the Penobscot. In 2012, Kolodny published ''In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery'' (Duke University Press). A major contribution to the field of American Studies, this book examines both Native American and Euroamerican stories of first contacts between the peoples of the New and Old Worlds. It examines the competition between
Leif Eiriksson
Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North ...
and
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
for the title of "first discoverer".
Literary theory and criticism
Landscape symbolism and ecofeminism
=''The Lay of the Land: Metaphor As Experience and History in American Life and Letters''
=
In her first book, ''The Lay of the Land'', Kolodny explores the
colonization
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
of America, both in reality and in the realm of
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
. She examines "the continued repetition of the land-as-woman symbolization in American life and letters" (Kolodny, ix). The projection of female imagery onto the landscape was essential to its colonization, she argued; in her introduction, she asks, "was there perhaps a need to experience the land as a nurturing, giving maternal breast because of the threatening, alien, and potentially emasculating terror of the unknown?" (9) By construing the land as female, she argued, it was possible for the colonists to remove some of the terror and mystery from an unknown land. Instead, it became either a nurturing maternal figure, existing to provide sustenance, or a passive virginal figure, existing only to be dominated, sexually or otherwise. With these metaphors firmly in sight, the colonists had a framework through which to view the vast stretches of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
as less alien and terrifying. Through an examination of several male writers, such as
Philip Freneau
Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor, sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his newspaper, th ...
,
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought ...
, and
John James Audubon
John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictori ...
, Kolodny pursues the implications of this metaphorically female land.
Different chapters of the book correspond to different chronological eras after the discovery and colonization of the Americas and to different metaphorical mindsets as manifested in the writings of the authors considered. In chapter 2, "Surveying the Virgin Land: The Documents of Exploration and Colonization, 1500–1740", the comparison of the land to an untouched, virginal paradise begins the exploration. Chapter 3, "Laying Waste Her Fields of Plenty: The Eighteenth Century", discusses the romanticized
agrarian and
pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depict ...
ideals that coloured the view of America, especially in its comparisons to ideal lands like
Elysium
Elysium (, ), otherwise known as the Elysian Fields ( grc, Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, ''Ēlýsion pedíon'') or Elysian Plains, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philos ...
and
Arcadia, and the consequences that arose from such ideals, such as the exploitation and alteration of the land. Chapter 4, "Singing Her Past and Singing Her Praises: The Nineteenth Century", examines the dual images of Mother and Mistress in the land, as well as the frustration of the pastoral impulse with the closing of the American frontier and the victory of the industrialized North in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. Finally, chapter 5, "Making It with Paradise: The Twentieth Century", deals with the increase of
industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
and the yearning both "to return to and to master the beautiful and bountiful femininity of the new continent." (139)
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
ian and
psychoanalytic influences are apparent in this text, especially in the "psychosexual dynamic of a virginal paradise" (Kolodny, ''Land Before Her'', 3). It also has tones of
ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in ...
, which will be discussed below.
=''The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860''
=
In the preface to this book, Kolodny states that "
e purpose of this study is to chart women’s private responses to the successive American frontiers and to trace a tradition of women’s public statements about the west." (Kolodny, ''Land Before Her'', xi) Thus, she approaches the same topic as that of ''Lay of the Land'' ("landscape as a symbolic…realm"
ii, but from a different direction. In the writings she examined, she noticed a different theme from that of the male writers:
Like their husbands and fathers, women too shared in economic motives behind emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...
; and like the men, women also dreamed of transforming the wilderness. But the emphases were different…Avoiding for a time male assertions of a rediscovered Eden, women claimed the frontiers as a potential sanctuary for an idealized domesticity. Massive exploitation and alteration of the continent do not seem to have been a part of women’s fantasies. They dreamed, more modestly, of locating a home and a familial human community within a cultivated garden. (xii–xiii)
There is little sense of the conquering-of-the-
frontier
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts ...
mentality that Kolodny discovered in the male writers she discussed in ''Lay of the Land''. There were no triumphant
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...
es of the order of
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...
or
Davey Crockett
David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Re ...
; rather, the narratives of these women focused on the triumph of domesticity and order in a wild land.
The book is organized chronologically, in much the same way as ''Lay of the Land''. The first section is titled "Book One: From Captivity to Accommodation, 1630-1833", and traces the writings of and about women as they moved from captivity both literal (
Mary Rowlandson’s account of being captured by
Native Americans) and figurative (the sense of being forcibly confined in a new and strange land) to adaptation in the form of survival skills, such as those reputedly possessed by
Rebecca Boone
Rebecca Ann Bryan Boone (January 9, 1739 – March 18, 1813) was an American pioneer and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone. No contemporary portrait of her exists, but people who knew her said that when she met her futur ...
, the wife of Daniel Boone. Book two, "From Promotion to Literature, 1833–1850", follows attempts to encourage women to move westward by male writers to western narratives by the women themselves. The third and final section, "Book Three: Repossessing Eden, 1850–1860", documents the attempts by women to create a familiar order in a still unfamiliar country.
=Ecofeminism
=
Both of these books relate to a subgenre of feminism called ecological feminism or ecofeminism, a social and political doctrine that posits a relationship between the subjugation of women and the destruction of nature. Ecofeminists theorize that a culture based on dominating women is directly connected to social ideals that promote the environmental abuse of the earth.
These two books have a connection to ecofeminism, particularly ''Lay of the Land''. The feminization of the land and the images of the earth as a passive, giving female figure show the social ideas that ecofeminism protests against. Likewise, ''The Land Before Her'' exemplifies the same ideas from a different point of view in the ideal of the domestic garden, or the altering of nature.
"Dancing Through the Minefield"
Perhaps her best known work, Kolodny’s 1980 essay "Dancing Through the Minefield" was the "first work to attempt both a survey of the first ten years of feminist literary inquiry and an analysis of the informing theoretical propositions".
[Jay, p. 210.] It has been the subject of criticism in the years since its initial publication, but can still be seen as a guide to "feminist concerns and methodologies."
=Social constructionism
=
Kolodny emphasizes Social constructionism in this essay, although she herself never uses the term. Briefly, social constructionism is a school of thought that involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, by people. (See full article on Social constructionism) Using this theory, social entities are seen as always being in a state of change as society itself changes, and the relationships of the entities change. "
ings in the world … are the products of ongoing social processes of interaction, and thus do not have fixed or inherent meanings."
In "Dancing Through the Minefield", Kolodny applies this theory to the
literary canon, those works of
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
that are considered appropriate for study. But such a canon is formed by critics whose values of
aestheticism are not neutral. The critical interpretation is formed by the interaction between two objects: the text and the reader. According to Kolodny, the reader’s ability to read any given text is shaped by the social conventions and assumptions of their time and place; Reading becomes a social product. But neither is the text pure; it is also moulded by social relations and customs. So any critical interpretation is necessarily a product of two forms of social construction. "Readers and texts are both made — and they are continually being remade."
The dynamic nature of both texts and readers must be taken into consideration when examining any text, or the established criticism of that text.
=Theory
=
Kolodny’s essay has a clear theoretical outline. In light of the social constructionist view that aesthetic values, as assigned to the literary canon, are in actuality the products of social conventions and values, Kolodny claims that feminist criticism should "discover how aesthetic value is assigned in the first place" (Kolodny 2147) and then assess the socially-constructed reading patterns that lead to those value judgements. "Having become embroiled in value disagreements, feminism should consider the processes underlying value judgements."
"Dancing Through the Minefield" outlines a three-part nucleus assumed by most contemporary feminist literary critics to be essential. First, any construction of a literary canon is a social construction; second, readers unconsciously engage texts from a certain point-of-view; and third, this unconscious bias present in all readers must be consciously and critically re-examined.
First, she writes, "literary history…is a fiction." (Kolodny 2153) This refers to the traditional formation of the literary canon and literary history as a social construction. Literary histories define the major, minor, and ignored texts according to their own social values and conventions, not out of any inherent aesthetic value on the text itself. For example, the western literary canon has been largely created by well-educated white men, and the focus of the canon is therefore on works by well-educated white men. It embodied, as well as upheld, the dominant ideology of the time, and had implications beyond aesthetic values. To give preference to texts by this group was to ignore texts created by other social groups. In recent years, the monolithic nature of the canon has been challenged, and works by previously ignored sections of the literary world (women,
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
s, and
ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
) have gained some footholds in the canon.
Secondly, readers of texts "engage…not texts but
paradigms." (2155) Just as texts and canons are socially constructed, so are the vantage points from which readers engage with any given text. This was also mentioned by
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is currently the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Sc ...
, who called these vantage points
interpretive communities. Kolodny states that "we appropriate meaning from a text…according the critical assumptions or predispositions (conscious or not) that we bring to it." (2155)
Finally, Kolodny "strives to undo the unconsciousness of the reader identified"
[Leitch, p. 2145.] in the second part of her theory:
Since the grounds upon which we assign aesthetic value to texts are never infallible, unchangeable, or universal, we must re-examine not only our aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
but, as well, the inherent biases and assumptions informing the critical methods which (in part) shape our aesthetic responses. (Kolodny 2158)
These three general theoretical principles are then supported by the concept of pluralism. Pluralism in this context refers to a conscious effort not to limit oneself to a single critical approach when reading a text. Rather, the object of pluralism is to make use of multiple critical approaches and to get a fuller appreciation of the variety of meanings which can be present in a single text. Kolodny specifically refers to a feminist pluralism, which validates "multiple interpretations of various texts"
according to the usefulness of a pluralistic view of a text. This method of reading would give equality to different approaches as well as allow critical examinations of those same approaches, which in turn helps create the "broad critical awareness"
advocated by Kolodny’s third principle as outlined above.
The essay emphasizes the real situation of contemporary women. Kolodny believes that feminism and women’s studies should not be confined to books or classrooms. “
eas are important because they determine the ways we live, or want to live, in the world” (Kolodny 2164); ideas are therefore not meant to exist in a vacuum. Rather, they must be taken into the world through
activism.
=Criticism
=
Several authors have criticized "Dancing Through the Minefield". The most well-known of these criticisms appeared in a collaborative article Kolodny wrote with Judith Gardiner,
Elly Bulkin
Elly Bulkin (born December 17, 1944) is an American writer. A founding editor of two nationally distributed periodicals: '' Conditions'' and ''Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends.'' ''Bridges'' mission statement explains that th ...
, and Rena Patterson entitled "An Interchange on Feminist Criticism: On ‘Dancing Through the Minefield’", which was published in the journal ''Feminist Studies'' in 1983.
Both Bulkin and Patterson believe that Kolodny, while speaking to women in her essay, is only speaking to a certain group of women — those who are white,
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
, and
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" ...
. Patterson states that "despite its language and intent,
he essayrepresents
classist
Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense ...
, white, and
heterosexist
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of female–male sexuality and relationships. According to Elizabeth Cramer, it can include the belief that all people are or should be heterosexual and that heterosexual ...
attitudes which are common in feminist literary criticism and which contradict the best of feminist thought and the aims of the women's movement" (Patterson, 654). This is a common criticism of
second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
...
: that it tended to ignore the problems of non-white and non-heterosexual women in favor of a homogenized white heterosexual feminist culture. However, Kolodny’s advocacy of the concept of pluralism may offset this claim. While she does not specify that alternative critical approaches should come from different
ethnicities
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
or
sexualities, there is no reason why they could not and such inclusion would only increase the scope of the "broad critical awareness"
mentioned above.
Gardiner, on the other hand, disagrees with Kolodny about the use of pluralism. While there can be no single ideology to which all feminist theories belong, Gardiner writes, there are some strong ideological concepts that define areas of feminism. Examples of this would include
liberal feminism
Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy. It is often considered culturally ...
,
socialist feminism
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles ...
, and
ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in ...
. In Gardiner’s view, the strong ideological beliefs shared by these groups would "limit their susceptibility to pluralism." (Gardiner 634)
''Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century''
Kolodny’s 1998 book is not a work of literary criticism, but rather one of institutional criticism. After serving as dean of Humanities for five years at the University of Arizona, Kolodny wrote this book in order to outline some of the problems facing academic institutions. These include the ability of legislators and administrators to make uninformed decisions about budget cuts without realizing the effect of such cuts on quality education; a myriad of problems about
tenure and promotions processes, which Kolodny believes still reflect an attitude antagonistic to women or ethnic minorities; a problem with anti-feminist and anti-
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
harassment; the lack of support available for students with children; the extent to which women and non-whites are still considered outsiders on university campuses; and the effect of an outdated curriculum in the face of greater demographic diversity and changing student learning needs. She outlines a number of changes which can be made to improve conditions and, realizing that any substantial change will require equally substantial money, encourages government reinvestment in higher education.
Sources
*"Annette Kolodny." Leitch, Vincent B., ed. ''The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001, pp. 2143–2146.
*Gardiner, Judith, Elly Bulkin, Rena Patterson, and Annette Kolodny. "An Interchange on Feminist Criticism: 'On Dancing Through the Minefield.'" ''Feminist Studies'' v.8 (3) 1983.
*Groden, Michael, and Martin Kreiswirth, eds. ''The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism.'' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
*Jay, Gregory, ed. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography.'' Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988.
*Kolodny, Annette. "Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of Feminist Literary Criticism." ''The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.'' Vincent B. Leitch, ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001.
*Kolodny, Annette. ''Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century.'' Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.
*Kolodny, Annette. ''The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
*Kolodny, Annette. ''The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
*Richter, David, ed. ''Critical Tradition.'' New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 1998.
See also
*
Ecofeminism
*
Feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
*
Higher Education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...
*
Literary Criticism
*
Second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
...
*
Social constructionism
Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theor ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolodny, Annette
1941 births
2019 deaths
American literary critics
Women literary critics
American non-fiction writers
Feminist studies scholars
Jewish American journalists
Jewish feminists
Brooklyn College alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Yale University faculty
University of New Hampshire faculty
University of Arizona faculty
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Social constructionism
Journalists from New York City
21st-century American Jews
American women critics