According to Elaine, the present impasses in feminist
criticism are not a problem of finding definitions or theories. The impasse comes from women’s own divided
consciousness; the split in each of us.
We are both the daughter of the male tradition of our teachers, our
professors, our dissertations, advicers and our publishers. It is a tradition which asks women to be
rational, marginal and grateful. At the
same time they are sisters in a new women’s movement which engenders another
kind of awareness and commitments.
To the present comments from some critics that
Feminism is in wilderness, Showalter has clear answer. She says Feminist criticism is in good company
because all criticism is in wilderness now.
She admits that Feminist criticism lacks a systematic and unified
theoretical basis.