Question

The author specifically mentions all of the following as difficulties that particularly affect women who are theoreticians of feminist literary criticism EXCEPT the -

• A. tendency of a predominantly male academic establishment to form preconceptions about women
• B. likelihood that the work of a woman theoretician who claims the privilege of art will be viewed with prejudice by some academics
• C. inescapability of power struggles between women in the academic profession and the academic establishment
• D. tendency of members of the academic establishment to treat all forms of feminist literary theory with hostility

Answer 1

The correct option is D

tendency of members of the academic establishment to treat all forms of feminist literary theory with hostility

Look at these lines in the second paragraph -
“If she defines feminist criticism as creative and intuitive, privileged as art, then her work becomes vulnerable to the prejudices of stereotypic ideas about the ways in which women think, and will be dismissed by much of the academic establishment”
Also have a look at these lines in the third paragraph.
“women scholars—only now entering the academic profession in substantial numbers”
Therefore (a) is not the answer.

In the second paragraph the following lines -
“Because of these prejudices, women who use an intuitive approach in their criticism may find themselves charged with inability to be analytical, to be objective, or to think critically”
Show that (b) can’t be the answer.

In the third paragraph the following lines
“These questions are political in the sense that the debate over them will inevitably be less an exploration of abstract matters in a spirit of disinterested inquiry than an academic power struggle in which the careers and professional fortunes of many women scholars—only now entering the academic profession in substantial numbers—will be at stake”
Also ensure that option (c) is wrong.
The correct answer is (d).