Women and Feminist Writing: Between Literature and Psychology

of Unlike their mothers, who were subject to male authority, female novelists portray rebellious female characters who are capable of taking charge of their lives and asserting their place in society. The body and sexuality are two key themes explored in these women’s writings. Feminist movements view them as means of reclaiming ownership over one’s body and self. However, in some male-authored texts, female sexuality is portrayed as a dangerous force — the woman is then endowed with power and becomes a source of deception and temptation. From a psychological perspective, womanhood is represented with a diversity that highlights its complexity and difference. This representation may be tied to a specific historical, social, or economic context, linked to unconscious symbolic relationships, or framed through Freud’s psychosexual theory, which defines femininity through science, biology, and the binary opposition activity/passivity.