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| Showlter |
Elaine Showalter views the absence of systematic Feminist theory as something quite natural and positive. In a culture which is dominated by patriarchy, such situation is not unexpected. One major obstacle was this: for many feminists, the observations and view points they put forward were really "an expressive and dynamic enterprise" of theirs. It was rather a part of their being and not just a mechanic academic out pouring. These women were unwilling to limit or bound there expressions within the constraints of a theory. Naturally they resisted such moves. Hence these feminists wished to escape from the leading schools of critical thought dominated by male centered theories and theorists. The cases of Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis and Marxism were similar.
All these debates were at the alto of masculine discourse. Another thing is that scientific criticism (Structuralist, Post-structuralist or Deconstructionist) tried to become objective while Feminist criticism stressed the authority of subjective experience. These feminists preferred to agree with Virginia Woolf. It is "unpleasant to be locked out.... it is worse perhaps to be locked in". In other words, it is unpleasant to have no systematic theory....it is worse to be locked in the chambers of masculine theories.
