The Story of my Paper

At the beginning, when I was wondering what to write about, I looked at the many posts I made pertaining to family. I wrote about my feelings on the lack of discussion on those who choose motherhood, parental relationships and many other things that talked about my love and emotions for my own family (like the poem my grandpa read me or poetry my grandma wrote). As I looked more into, I realized that what literature has done is making me look deeper into my emotions of a woman's position and responsibilities. Certain texts were able to reach to me more than others, and I began to think about the influence literature had in the feminist movement, and how it influences me as a girl in the 21st century.
I started by asking some friends on Facebook about how the Feminist movement has changed our society within the past 50 years. I got very conservative answers, considering many of my friends are conservative. I also got responses from those who are in their 50's and 60's and saw their perspectives on how the world changed. I feel like literature had to be a prominent influence in this change.
Doctor Burton asked us to rephrase our thesis five times in hopes that we would create the best thesis. I was frustrated with the assignment because my computer had died that weekend, but I was amazed at how it began to make me think of the differences between feminist literature in the Victorian age compared to our modern world.
After all of this, I went back to Facebook, where I had a conversation with my sister-in-law. This was able to help me get a stronger perspective on my topic. I began to create a better idea with Victorian and modern literature and looked deeper into the subgenres that feminism goes into. I knew that to be able to understand this set of literature, I would have to understand the authors, which is what my literary reference did for me. I was able to study more about the authors.
I wrote my Preliminary Draft which got me on the right track to write My Final Paper! Now, I am left with a better understanding of a subgenre of feminism and how it affects me now.

My Literary Reference Work

To read and understand every book, article and idea about feminism within literature would be absurd. So, to narrow my topic, I began to look at certain writers who have impacted feminist literature, and looked to see their views and opinions, and how that may have affected their work, along with looking at the works themselves. When I was looking for something to help me get to know these authors and writers better, I found in the subject guide, when I looked at women's literature, they had an encyclopedia of women writers from colonial times to the present times. It  focused on American Writers, which helped me to look into people such as Kate Chopin and Naomi Wolf. This book called American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present was able to help me get to know my authors I would be focusing on better. This was able to help me become more knowledgeable on my subject without reading hundreds of books.

A Subgenre of Fiction

Yeah, it's fiction. But, it's so much more than that. Feminist fiction is more than just a pretend world written by an author. This literature is works created by women who are looking for a way to get past all the emotions of being trapped or held back by the social world. I believe that those that were written during the Victorian age up till the 1960's has character and morals that can address emotions that are common among the entire human race. That which is written in our modern day contains the same aspects, with strong woman characters. The main difference between the modern and the Victorian would be the text, involving whether it was women escaping a mental imprisonment or women appearing that they are better than the men within the story. These forms of literature talks about overcoming the traps and becoming more. Besides the fiction, there are nonfiction feminist writings that go into the personal feelings and experiences that the feminist women have gone through, which often sounds like more of a rant of hurt feelings than actual literature.

Feminist Literature: Victorian Period to the Modern Literature

I am not a Feminist. I've never been and I really doubt I ever will be. The reason that I am looking into feminist literature is because, no matter the literature, I feel like it is necessary to write something that can cause anyone to relate. The thing about the Victorian time period up into the early 1960's is that no matter what, I was able to relate to feminist works, not due to their feminist nature, but because I can relate to the emotions and the feelings of being trapped or held back. Though I don't agree with the social movement, I do realize the good that is within the text.
The modern writings within the feminist genre appear crude, unable to relate to anyone who isn't a feminist and just lacking the morals that differentiate it from a rant by a feminist and a story that can withhold the test of time. This text is often frustrating and insulting to me as a woman because it seems to be very one sided. If any other opinion was brought to the table, it would be ignored.
This is important to me. Feminism affects our world, still, even when things have changed and things are so much more different than they were 60 years ago. If we continue to allow feminism to change the world we live in, it needs to be for the better instead of for the bad. More perspectives is fine, but forcing a rant into the readers is too much. Victorian feminist literature has values that go past it's feminist message; it is able to speak of feelings involving being trapped or held back from your potential, which is something all people can relate to.

Feminism in our Modern World

Our nation is entirely different from what it was 60 years ago. If you compare the 50's to our modern 2013, the way the family, motherhood and the American Dream is percieved is drastically different. In the 50's, woman's main responsibility was motherhood and raising children, while the father was out working to gain success and maybe be able to reach the American Dream of successful lives with the white picket fence. Now, in 2013, the family has been changed to be single parents, divorced parents, married and many other types of parents, with kids, stepchildren, adoptive, foster. The American Dream is simply to have a job to uphold you, and for some, to make their career the foremost responsibility to reach their greatest potential. My question is to see how feminist literature has enhanced the feminist movement, and how that has affected the society we live in now, whether for the good or the worst.

Policy Claim:

Feminist Literature from the 1890's

To be able to understand our current world, a person should read the feminist literature to help them understand the feminist movement and it's affects on our society.

Definition Claim:
Feminist literature is a large part of feminism, which has changed the way our modern society functions.

Comparison Claim:
Feminist literature made a larger affect on society in the 60's than it did when a lot of it was written in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Evaluation Claim:
Pre-feminist movement literature was better than the current feminist literature and articles written in our day.

Cause and Effect Claim:
The use of feminist literature during the feminist movement has changed the perception of woman and their roles and responsibilities in family, business and educational lives.