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guide to feminist literary theory

#MeToo in the Classroom or Book Club: How to Read Unreliable Female Narrators Like a Feminist

According to recent bestseller lists, unreliable female narrators are having a heyday. Popular titles like A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl are set in the present moment, but they contain echoes of much older works of literature commonly used in the classroom, like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. 

In all of these works of literature, and many more, a female narrator goes through a confusing experience; her reactions to the experience are documented in her narration, but something about her renders her voice untrustworthy to the reader. Sometimes, she is too young to be taken seriously, or she is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or physically unwell. Often, however, her most unreliable quality may be her gender, which is why these works of literature (see the Book List at the end of this article) make for rich study when discussed through the lens of feminist literary theory. 

What is Feminist Literary Theory?

Readers unfamiliar with literary theory, or literary criticism, as an academic pursuit may benefit from learning that literary theory is simply the practice of applying a specific frame of reference to the study of a work of literature. Anyone can engage in this scholarly practice and discover new meaning in the books they read. If you’re looking for more guidance, see our Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. 

Here, we’ll examine how to apply established principles of feminist theory to works of literature. Feminist literary theory is the practice of examining a book from a feminist perspective — that is, with issues of gender inequities in mind. In the 1960s and 70s, feminism, a political and social movement that advocated for women’s rights, gathered momentum in America; this movement continues to inspire scholars to examine literature as a reflection of both society at large and of the political and social ideology of specific writers. Here’s how:

  • Feminist critics examine literary portrayals of women to expose the ways in which writers misrepresent, underrepresent, or marginalize women. The writers need not always be male. 
  • Feminist critics explore the nature of being female, seeking to illuminate the experiences of women who have been suppressed, silenced, or ignored.
  • Feminist literary theory also concerns itself with power; in the case of female unreliable narrators, they lack power because their voices are considered inconstant or untrue.

Resources: 

Conversation Starter: Ask a group of readers or students to write down what they think of when they think of a feminist. Group members can continue writing independently, or, if they prefer, discuss with a partner what it might feel like to talk about feminism in a group setting. What worries them about the process and what excites them?

What is an Unreliable Narrator?

According to literary critic Wayne C. Booth, who coined the term, an unreliable narrator is the narrator of a work of literature who does not speak or act “in accordance with the norms of the work” (The Rhetoric of Fiction, pages 158–59).

The norms of a literary work might involve the reporting of events and conversations, the interpretation of characters’ acts and behaviors, and/or the evaluation of situations that involve the narrator.

Clues that you’re in the hands of an unreliable narrator:

  • The narrator’s reports of events include a subtext that may or may not accurately reflect the thoughts and feelings of the individuals involved, such as in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. 
  • The narrator interprets another character’s behavior as dangerous or transgressive though the circumstances surrounding the behavior appear anodyne to others, or vice versa.
  • The narrator evaluates an objectively positive situation as negative, or, as in Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller, an objectively negative situation as positive. The unreliability of the narrator is compounded by the unexpected or “inappropriate” nature of the narrator’s evaluation as viewed by other characters. 

Resources: 

Conversation Starter: Have the group reflect on the notion of “norms” for a few minutes. In a classroom setting, students can write their responses in journals or discuss the questions with a partner. Ask: What norms do you observe in school, at work, or in other community settings? And what happens when someone violates those norms?

Feminism, Power, and Voice

Feminist literary scholars often explore a work of literature in terms of power. In the case of an unreliable female narrator, her power, or rather, her lack of power, lies in the matter of her voice. She lacks authority over her own story, so when she uses her own voice to seek help, for example, she is often denied the assistance she needs. 

When a female narrator’s judgment is impaired, she becomes more vulnerable: drugs or alcohol, or emotions like fear and anger, or other concerns like mental health problems or physical illness often afflict female narrators, which weaken them in the eyes of the male characters and sometimes, the readers themselves. In many cases, the male characters of a novel have more authority, more knowledge, and, therefore, more confidence and credibility than their female counterparts.

Examples:

  • Power as a resource or an asset: Some unreliable female narrators are deemed unworthy of a voice while others find that when they talk, no one listens. See discussion of The Yellow Wallpaper in the “Book List” section below.
  • Power as a controlling force: At times, when an unreliable female narrator attempts to impact a person or a situation, her attempts may appear incoherent, sloppy, ineffectual, or even disastrous. See discussion of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine in the “Book List” section below.
  • Power as having the potential to act: Unreliable female narrators sometimes seize power in ways that upset or offend other characters, and their energy is sometimes misconstrued as melodrama, a form of attention-seeking, or female emotion gone awry. See discussions of Gone Girl and My Sister, the Serial Killer in the “Book List” section below.

Resources:

Conversation Starter: Ask the group to reflect on the idea of power within the context of relationships: Think of a relationship that can exist between two people (younger brother/older sister, boss/employee, etc.) and how power might impact that relationship. For example, what does it mean for the older sister to have power over her little brother?

Reading the #MeToo Movement

Many feminists assert that the phenomenon of the unreliable female is not just a literary one, especially in light of the revelations of the #MeToo Movement. Despite an increased awareness around the world of the oppression of women, past and present, the words of women are often still doubted, dismissed, and denigrated, especially when the women are involved in conflicts with men. 

By applying tenets of feminist literary criticism to the sampling of titles discussed in the next “Book List” section, students and the general reader will be better able to appreciate the links between literature and real-world issues of gender discrimination, abuse, and harassment.

Resources:

Conversation Starter: Present the group with a real-world news article to help individuals understand and reflect on the link between feminist readings of texts and the #MeToo movement. Refer to the list above for ideas; one or more of these articles may prompt rich discussion of the books you are reading.

Book List: Read These 8 Books (and More) Like A Feminist 

All the texts listed below are appropriate for classroom study and book club discussions. Readers will quickly observe that all are narrated in the first person by an unreliable female. In these novels, authored by both men and women, when a woman or a young girl attempts to assert her power with her voice, efforts to discredit her move the events in the plot line forward.

1) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Synopsis: In ten diary entries, the narrator of this short story writes openly about her postpartum struggles, which are exacerbated by her lack of agency over her own medical treatment. Published in 1892 in New England, the story is semi-autobiographical; Charlotte Perkins Gilman herself was forced to endure the rest cure prescribed to her by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, and her narrator’s mental decline reflects Gilman’s own struggle to have some authority over her experience as a patient. 

Power dynamic: The narrator experiences a severe mental decline, and as she writes about her symptoms, they increase in severity and the details in her written narrative grow more terrifying. The narrator documents how her husband, a doctor, ignores her when she expresses what she needs, demonstrating to readers that her voice has been muted. 

Discussion point: What do the consequences of the narrator’s silencing reveal about the gender norms of the author’s time? 

Quote: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Page 131)

The narrator appears to accept disrespectful treatment as a condition of marriage. Her resigned tone reveals the writer’s negative attitude toward marriage, a social institution at this time in American history that Gilman herself found unsatisfactory; she divorced her husband soon after writing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” inviting criticism and disparagement from members of her society.

2) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Synopsis: This 2012 thriller by author Gillian Flynn is often described as “domestic,” which is a term budding feminist scholars might enjoy exploring in its own right. The enraged anti-heroine, Amy Dunne, takes turns with her husband Nick to tell the story of Amy’s disappearance five years to the day after their wedding. Neither narrator is being completely honest, so the reader must attempt to read between the lines to find the truth. 

Power dynamic: As the reader learns that Amy’s rage stems from her discovery of Nick’s affair with a young, attractive female student, Amy’s desire to toy with Nick and punish him for his infidelity makes more sense. As well, when Nick narrates his side of the story, his descriptions of Amy reveal that he believes Amy is a hysteric; Amy uses these assumptions about her character in devious ways, suggesting that the power in their relationship may actually be in her hands.

Discussion point: Does Amy’s rage make her a stronger female character with a more compelling, more authentic story or does she exhibit signs of what the patriarchy might identify as “female problems”? 

Quote: “My wife had a brilliant, popping brain, a greedy curiosity. But her obsessions tended to be fueled by competition: She needed to dazzle men and jealous-ify women: Of course Amy can cook French cuisine and speak fluent Spanish and garden and knit and run marathons and day-trade stocks and fly a plane and look like a runway model doing it. She needed to be Amazing Amy all the time.” (Part One, Page 45)

This passage appears in one of Nick’s sections of the novel, through which he narrates the story of Amy’s disappearance. In his description of Amy, he employs several negative stereotypes of heterosexual women that include an inherent need to impress men and to look attractive as well as a competitive approach to her relationships with other women. Nick does not address the possibility that Amy’s impulse to excel in so many aspects of her life may be fueled by a need to prove to the world that she is not merely an object and that she is, in fact, a capable, intelligent, multi-talented woman.

3) The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn 

Synopsis: Dr. Anna Fox, the protagonist of this 2018 novel, is a smart, well-educated child psychologist. Though she is a mental health professional herself, her self-sabotage and other effects of a traumatic experience lead others in her life to question her attachment to reality when she witnesses a murder. When Anna asks her friends and the police to believe her, they refuse to take her words to heart. Even the reader becomes complicit as Anna’s unreliable narration is fueled by a dangerous mixture of wine and psychotropic medications that renders her voice erratic as the events of the plot unfold.

Power dynamic: Anna is vulnerable and her observations are accurate, but the stigma of mental illness exacerbates her distressing situation. The police detectives and others in her life dismiss her fears as unfounded paranoia, and she is left to fend for herself. Ultimately, Anna’s voice is heard, but only after she saves herself from a potentially fatal attack and the evidence that proves her right is indisputable. 

Discussion point: Does the resolution of the novel suggest that women have the potential to defy convention and be their own rescuers, or is Anna just one of the lucky ones?

Quote: “Once more Jane enters the frame—but walking slowly, strangely. Staggering. A dark patch of crimson has stained the top of her blouse; even as I watch, it spreads to her stomach. Her hands scrabble at her chest. Something slender and silver has lodged there, like a hilt.” (Chapter 32, Page 144)

In this passage, Anna sees that Jane has been stabbed in the chest, but she does not yet know that Jane’s killer is her son, Ethan. Later, Anna learns the truth about Ethan, and the location of the stab wound suggests maternal tropes that enhance the shock value of Ethan’s murder of his own mother. For example, Jane is killed after sustaining a wound to the chest, which is the location of both her heart and her breasts; stereotypes of motherhood often place a child’s life at the center of the mother’s emotional world, represented by her heart, and they also often assume that a mother will nourish her child with her body, specifically, with her breasts. Ethan’s attack on his mother is all the more horrifying for the maternal stereotypes in play.

4) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Synopsis: Kathy is the protagonist and narrator of Never Let Me Go, a work of dystopian literature published in 2005. She tells the story of her past nostalgically, focusing on her personal experience of the events that mark her early life and upbringing. Kathy is a clone, so her understanding of herself and her role in the world has not been shaped by a childhood in a traditional family environment; instead, Kathy is influenced primarily by the adults who run Hailsham, the institution for young clones where she was brought up. 

Power dynamic: In her role as a carer for other clones whose organs have been harvested to save the lives of humans, Kathy falls into a stereotypical gender role, nurturing and caring for others in a maternal way. Kathy has some agency over herself, but her muddled self-perceptions lend her storytelling an untrustworthiness characteristic of unreliable narrators.

Discussion point: Kathy’s depth of emotion and her ability to think philosophically about art and life give her an unexpected humanity, but is her lack of credibility her fault, or the fault of the society that created her?

Quote: “There were other buildings, usually the outlying ones, that were virtually falling down, which we couldn’t use for much, but for which we felt in some way responsible.” (Chapter 10, Page 71)

From a young age, Kathy has been trained to be maternal by the guardians at Hailsham who assign her the role of carer. She and other carers look after clones who have been designated as organ donors, establishing that clones who function as mothers are essential to the organ donation industry that created the clones in the first place. When Kathy acknowledges that she and the other residents of the Cottages felt a sense of duty towards buildings that were in disrepair, she suggests that she felt genuine emotion towards the inanimate objects. Her memory of her emotional connection to the outbuildings reveals that Kathy’s impulse to nurture and to take care of others according to culturally-accepted maternal stereotypes has been ingrained into her character. 

5) Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Synopsis: In modern day Glasgow, Eleanor Oliphant, the title character of the novel published in 2017, is an eccentric 29-year-old woman whose mother is apparently in prison. Eleanor has an alcohol problem, a propensity towards social awkwardness, and a crush on a pop star; her infatuation with this singer inspires her to reinvent herself, but when the object of her affection proves to be unreachable, Eleanor is forced to face the reality of her painful past.

Power dynamic: Eleanor describes her experience with loneliness in clear, affecting prose, revealing her mental health struggles with humor and self-deprecation. The reader sees Eleanor as she sees herself, which is often the object of a darkly funny punchline. 

Discussion point: Eleanor’s use of humor to dispel the harshness of her reality may make her less reliable as a narrator, as she seems to protect her sensitivities with the distance of jokes, but what are her other options in a world that judges people who are lonely, preferring to look the other way?

Quote: “A philosophical question: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And if a woman who’s wholly alone occasionally talks to a potted plant, is she certifiable? I’m confident that it is perfectly normal to talk to oneself occasionally. It’s not as though I’m expecting a reply. I’m fully aware that Polly is a houseplant.” (Chapter 6, Page 51)

In this passage from the novel, Eleanor reveals that her houseplant’s name is Polly and that she has one-sided conversations with Polly, which she regards as a “perfectly normal” and acceptable behavior. Eleanor’s choice to anthropomorphize her houseplant by giving the houseplant a stereotypically female name suggests that Eleanor believes that a woman would offer Eleanor, in her loneliness, more sympathy than a man. Women are often stereotyped as talkative, which makes Polly’s role as a sympathetic listener even more poignant; as well, Polly’s inability to respond to Eleanor emphasizes the silence that characterizes Eleanor’s life on weekends, when she speaks to no one else. 

6) My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Synopsis: Korede, the protagonist of this 2019 satirical novel set in Lagos, Nigeria, takes care to cover the bloody tracks of her murderous sister Ayoola, whose sociopathic tendencies may stem from the abuse she sustained at the hands of their father. Braithwaite presents the themes of her debut novel with dark humor, examining the close relationship between the sisters through a love triangle that has the potential to go horribly wrong. 

Power dynamic: Korede’s attachment to Ayoola and her impulse to protect her suggest she is a loving and selfless sister, but her narration of the events concerning Ayoola may not be trustworthy as a result of Korede’s sisterly loyalty. The setting of the story further complicates matters; in Lagos, violence against women is alarmingly commonplace, which means that Ayoola’s murderous impulses could reflect an overreactive fight or flight response to any interaction with any man. 

Discussion point: How much does the culture of abuse and harassment into which the sisters are born contribute to their behaviors? Does the author’s satirical tone enhance the cautionary tone of this novel or detract from it?

Quote: “She didn’t mean to kill him; she wanted to warn him off, but he wasn’t scared of her weapon. He was over six feet tall and she must have looked like a doll to him, with her small frame, long eyelashes and rosy, full lips.

(Her description, not mine.)

She killed him on the first strike, a jab straight to the heart. But then she stabbed him twice more to be sure. He sank to the floor. She could hear her own breathing and nothing else.”

(Chapter 4, Page 7)

In this passage, Koreda recalls Ayoola’s comparison of herself to a doll. This comparison juxtaposes Ayoola’s violent act of stabbing with what she believes is her perceived weakness as a young woman. By focusing the reader’s eye on stereotypically feminine details like her diminutive size in comparison to most men and her delicate, sexually alluring facial features, Koreda shocks the reader into realizing that this seemingly vulnerable young woman is actually a cold-hearted killer. Ayoola defies many stereotypes that surround women, all of which suggest that femininity is weakness. 

7) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Synopsis: This 2012 novel opens as a young woman named Queenie, which is another alias for the protagonist also known as Verity and as Lady Julie Beaufort-Stuart, acknowledges to the reader, and to her Nazi captors, that she has a particular skill: pretending. From the start of the novel, Lady Julie warns the reader that she may or may not be telling the truth, which is a direct circumstance of her wartime duties as a spy. In this young adult novel set during World War II, unreliability and untrustworthiness are Julie’s superpowers and the keys to Julie’s survival. 

Power dynamic: As Julie writes the confession that makes up the entirety of the epistolary novel, she manipulates her Nazi captors, demonstrating that her ability to work as a double-agent is not merely a stereotypical feminine wile, but a life-saving strength. As well, the novel’s focus on Lady Julie’s friendship with another heroic young woman, Maddie examines the role of power between two equals.

Discussion point: Is the focus on the friendship between Lady Julie and Maddie enough to label Code Name Verity a feminist novel? What other elements of the novel make it feminist?

Quote: “I am no longer afraid of getting old. In fact I can’t believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant.

But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.” (Part 1, Page 114)

Verity scolds her younger self in this passage for being so vain as to worry about the natural processes of aging; she criticizes her own youthful arrogance and her immature assumption that old age would negatively affect her. Young Verity’s fears can be explained by her existence in a culture that places inordinate amounts of value on a woman’s youth and appearance. As a product of that culture, Verity understandably places value on her own youth and appearance, lamenting the time when her youth will fade. Now, at this point in the novel, when Verity understands that her life is in danger, she finally appreciates the fact that living to an old age is a blessing. 

8) We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Synopsis: Cady, the rebellious 17-year-old narrator of this young adult novel published in 2014, is 15 years old when she suffers a mysterious accident she cannot remember. As she struggles with painful headaches in the years that follow her injuries, her mother refuses to tell her what happened to her, forcing Cady to draw up hazy memories of the incident on her own. 

Power dynamic: Cady’s resistant attitude towards her upbringing mirrors, in some ways, the experience of all young people as they seek to individuate themselves from their families. Cady’s unwillingness to live according to the norms set by her grandfather, however, diverges from typical adolescence when her rebellious ways cause a disaster from which she will never wholly recover.

Discussion points: What effect does Cady’s patriarchal family have on her development from a young girl into a woman with her own opinions about the world? Some critics describe Cady’s voice as authentic for its messiness, but does this reading of her character support difficult stereotypes of young women or challenge them?

Quote: “He married Tipper and kept her in the kitchen and the garden. He put her on display in pearls and on sailboats. She seemed to enjoy it.” (Chapter 3, Page 6)

Cady describes the relationship between her grandparents with cynicism, revealing her awareness that her grandfather’s treatment of her grandmother as a decorative object is objectionable. Cady scorns her grandmother for “enjoying” her life as a stereotypical “trophy wife,” which is a sexist term in its own right; that Cady describes her grandmother without using the term reflects her thoughtfulness and her resistance to the patriarchal norms that characterize the society of her grandparents. 

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