A Feminist Criticism of The Passion Anonymous College

Employing a feminist while analyzing Jeannette Winterson’s The Passion allows for the use of many tools that can assist the reader while conducting a close reading of this work. Some terms from Tyson’s Critical Theory Today that will aid in the close examination of The Passion are: traditional gender roles, which “cast men as rational, strong, protective, and decisive; they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and submissive” (81), patriarchy, which is defined, “as any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles” (81), subjectivity, which is explained as, “one’s own selfhood, the way one views oneself and others, which develops from one’s own individual experiences” (90) and materialist feminism, which is, “interested in the social and economic oppression of women” (91). There are many instances where Winterson defies the heteronormative gender roles of the 1800s through her writing, and The Passion is a prime representation of her defiance against patriarchal dominated societies. This piece of literature is especially unique for the outlying perspectives she puts forth between the protagonists, Villanelle and Henri, given the socially reversed portrayal that Winterson chose to place on...