How is Feminism Reflected in Literature? (Essay Sample)

Assignment: How is feminism reflected in literature?
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How is feminism reflected in literature?
The written word has traditionally served as a vehicle for disseminating information to the masses. Documenting the human history and struggle in literature has resulted in civilizations learning from their forefathers' mistakes and devising strategies for overcoming these problems. Among these efforts has been the campaign for women's equality or feminism.
Feminism has been widely misinterpreted throughout history and continues to be misunderstood to this day, as is the case whenever systematic oppression is questioned or challenged (Felski, 2020). Fighting the feminist battle was not limited to large-scale protests but also to literature that challenged people's assumptions, whether through autobiographies of women's daily struggles or fictional works depicting the world's sad reality through the eyes of non-existent but very real characters.
This reflection of feminism in literature corresponded to the waves of feminism that occurred in society. During the more recent waves of feminism, the marginalization of women and degrading treatment were depicted in the works of Mary Ellman (1968) and Kate Millet (1969) in the late 1960s. Still, it wasn't just female novelists who questioned the system. They also adapted books into films, such as Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew (1969), which focused on the abuse his female character Katherina suffered, another sad depiction of reality.
Throughout the late 1970s, various themes of literature were investigated; for example, Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977) highlighted the various phases of gynocentrism, while Charlotte Bronte's iconic Jane Eyre's Mad Woman archetype has been depicted since the 1980s. While male writer