What are the basic tenets of feminist criticism?

Feminist criticism, essentially, seeks to understand how works of literature, particularly those that have long been recognized as part of a core literary "canon," perpetuate patriarchal ideas and represent female interests. Feminist criticism can be thought of as an interrogation of how feminist or otherwise is a work's presentation of women. Some feminist criticism will focus on works which present women's issues well, and some will focus on works which obviously perpetuate patriarchal narratives; the unifying factor is that all feminist criticism privileges the interaction of women with society, both in the context of the text and in terms of how the text relates to the wider world.

We can compare feminist criticism in this way to Marxist criticism, or post-colonial criticism. Marxist criticism does not only look at works perceived to be Marxist. Instead, it focuses upon how the ideals presented in a text might be said to interact with Marxist ideologies. Similarly, feminist criticism can be used as a lens through which to interpret works that are highly feminist and works that are extremely patriarchal; it simply means that the criticism focuses upon questions of feminism in the text and between the text and our modern reality.

What are the basic tenets of feminist criticism?

Another important tenet of feminist criticism is the debate between essentialism and constructionism which occurs not only between feminists and non-feminists but also between feminists.

Essentialists insist that there are natural differences between the sexes, including psychological, biological, and linguistic differences. Furthermore, men and women can never completely understand each other and each possess differences that counteract the other. Essentialists tend to believe that women are more caring, and that men, unlike women, feel compelled to assert their separation from the mother by adopting an aggressive posture in the face of the world.

What French feminists call écriture féminine is a direct rebuke of rationalism in writing, for rationalism is perceived as masculine.

Constructionists contend that the differences between men and women are due to a cultural indoctrination that begins at birth, or even when parents are expecting. In response to the aforementioned arguments, a constructionist would argue that differences between men and women are constructed by societies whose histories and economic goals are incompatible with gender equality. Therefore, women are not inherently more caring, but feel compelled to develop that portion of their personalities to be socially accepted. Men, however, would downplay that part of themselves to avoid being mistaken as "feminine" or "weak." For, caring men who would like to take on roles in child-rearing or who believe in softer approaches to world diplomacy are seen as incompatible with desires to assert military dominance and to maintain men's economic dominance.

What are the basic concerns of feminist criticism?

Just as African Americans and Native Americans have historically been concerned with the manner in which they and their roles in society have been portrayed by authors and film directors representing a more Euro-centric perspective, women have long taken issue with how men portray and treat female characters and how they critique female authors.  It is certainly fair to suggest that portrayals of individual ethnicities, genders or social classes by authors from different categories of individual very often reflect the biases and limited levels of knowledge such authors possess.  Because of the historically-constrained role of women in most societies, certain particularly strong-willed women over the centuries have sought to address those biases through the adoption of a "feminist" perspective.  

Perhaps one of the most notable examples of such a feminist perspective was George Eliot, the 19th Century British novelist whose real name was Mary Ann Evans.  Evans adopted the pseudonym "George Eliot" as a response to the heavily male-dominated and rigidly-structured society in which she lived -- that of Victorian England.  Only by publishing under a man's name, she believed, would Evans/Eliot be able to write in the style she desired -- mainly, a more realistic portrayal of society than was ordinarily expected of a female writer -- while maintaining realistic hopes of being published.  The result was the literary classic Silas Marner, as well as the novel widely considered one of the finest ever published, Middlemarch.  

Feminist criticism, then, is an effort to present female characters in literature as they really are: living, breathing human beings with the same aspirations and dreams as men while suffering the indignities of a male-dominated world in which the role of women has historically been sublimated to men.  More specific to the "criticism" aspect of feminist thought is the reevaluation of literature with the feminist perspective in mind, in effect, to examine the manner in which female characters were portrayed throughout history and to provide a corrective in contemporary criticism and in the teaching of future generations of writers and critics.