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When first published in 1977, A Literature of Their Own quickly set the stage for the creative explosion of feminist literary studies that transformed the field in the 1980s. Launching a major new area for literary investigation, the book uncovered the long but neglected tradition of women writers in England. A classic of feminist criticism, its impact continues to be felt today.


This revised and expanded edition contains a new introductory chapter surveying the book's reception and a new postscript chapter celebrating the legacy of feminism and feminist criticism in the efflorescence of contemporary British fiction by women.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments to the Expanded Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Twenty Years On: A Literature of Their Own Revisited
• I The Female Tradition(p. 3)
• I The Feminine Novelists and the Will to Write(p. 37)
• II The Double Critical Standard and the Feminine Novel(p. 73)
• V Feminine Heroines: Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot(p. 100)
• V Feminine Heroes: The Woman's Man(p. 133)
• VI Subverting the Feminine Novel: Sensationalism and Feminine Protest(p. 153)
• VII The Feminist Novelists(p. 182)
• VIII Women Writers and the Suffrage Movement(p. 216)
• X The Female Aesthetic(p. 240)
• X Virginia Woolf and the Flight into Androgyny(p. 263)
• XI Beyond the Female Aesthetic: Contemporary Women Novelists(p. 298)
• XII Laughing Medusa(p. 320)
• Index(p. 337)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Showalter (Princeton Univ.) upholds many of the concerns and discoveries she expressed in the first edition of this book (CH, Nov'77), notably her distinction between the feminine, the feminist, and the female stages in the history of women's writing. She continues to define the feminine phase as 1840 (the appearance of the male pseudonym) to 1880 (when George Eliot died); the feminist phase, 1880 to "the winning of the vote" in 1920; the female, from 1920 to the present, with a new stage of awareness occurring in about 1960. In the earlier edition Showalter strove to establish carefully constructed frames to explain the unfolding of writing by women; now she realizes that although women novelists and critics have gained acceptance in every field, the history of women's writing "will never be finished." Showalter's provides a most readable account of that history--she refrains from the use of jargon that makes so many books on feminist topics unappealing; her writing has the rhythms and pace of narrative. Of particular interest are the chapters "Feminine Heroines: Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot" and "Feminine Heroes: The Woman's Man." The only awkwardness occurs in Showalter's introduction, in which she seems somewhat defensive as she addresses critics' remarks about the earlier edition. Graduates through faculty. J. A. Dompkowski Canisius College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

In 1977, Showalter published A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. It was one of the most influential works in feminist criticism, as it sought to establish a distinctive tradition for women writers. In later essays, Showalter helped to develop a clearly articulated feminist theory with two major branches: the special study of works by women and the study of all literature from a feminist perspective. In all of her recent writing, Showalter has sought to illuminate a "cultural model of female writing," distinguishable from male models and theories. Her role as editor bringing together key contemporary feminist criticism has been extremely influential on modern literary study. (Bowker Author Biography)