Wow! eBook
Feminist Literary History
Author(s): Janet Todd (Author)
- Publisher: Polity Press
- Publication Date: 29 April 1988
- Language: English
- Print length: 180 pages
- ISBN-10: 0745605133
- ISBN-13: 9780745605135
Book Description
The author offers an analysis and defence of the feminist literary history practised by Elaine Showalter and other contemporary American literary critics. She argues that this approach rightly links the political concerns of feminist criticism to the uncovering of female voices embedded in history. She reconstructs the development of feminist literary history from the 1960s through to the present day, highlighting the central themes as well as the strengths and weaknesses. She then examines the debate between American feminist critics, on the one hand, and feminist critics inspired by the work of French theorists such as Kristeva, Irigaray and Cixous, on the other. She defends feminist literary history against its critics and casts doubt on some of the uses of psychoanalysis in feminism. She also considers the debate with men and assesses the relevance of academic analyses of gender, masculinity and homosexuality. This book should be of interest to students of English literature, modern languages, women’s studies and cultural studies.
