Feminist Literary Theory

Mary Eagleton is Professor of Contemporary Women’s Writing at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. She has published extensively in the field of feminist literary theory and contemporary women’s writing, including Feminist Literary Criticism (1991), Working With Feminist Criticism (Wiley-Blackwell, 1996), A Concise Companion to Feminist Theory (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003) and Figuring the Woman Author in Contemporary Fiction (2005). She is founding Co-editor of the journal, Contemporary Women’s Writing.

“Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader is an indispensable guide, companion and handbook for students and teachers of women’s literature. No other anthology offers so many bite-sized tasters of work on gendered authorship, literary production, critical reception, sexuality and genre – from romantic fiction to travel writing. Mary Eagleton’s clear and informative introductions contextualize the debates represented by each extract, suggest connections between them and point to further reading. This third edition maintains and develops the irreplaceable breadth of the previous editions with several new pieces on such areas as autobiography, science fiction and border talk. The extra section, ‘Writing “Glocal”’, investigates dynamically evolving dialogues between feminism and postcolonialism, diaspora narratives and transculturalism. Whether you read from start to finish or choose to sample selectively, this rich collection will expand your knowledge and understanding of feminist thought, both as an historical discipline and as an excitingly relevant and progressive set of ideas.”—Jane Dowson, De Montfort University

• Preface xiiAcknowledgments xvi1 Finding a Female TraditionIntroduction 1Extracts from:A Room of One’s OwnVirginia Woolf 9A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to LessingElaine Showalter 11‘Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence’Adrienne Rich 15Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist TheoryChris Weedon 19‘The Rise of Black Feminist Literary Studies’ Ann Ducille 21‘Race and Gender in the Shaping of the American Literary Canon: A Case Study from the Twenties’Paul Lauter 26‘Telling Feminist Stories’ Clare Hemmings 33Doing Time: Feminist Theory and Postmodernist CultureRita Felski 37‘Happy Families? Feminist Reproduction and Matrilineal Thought’ Linda R. Williams 41Literary Relations: Kinship and the Canon Jane Spencer 45‘Parables and Politics: Feminist Criticism in 1986’Nancy K. Miller 47‘What Women’s Eyes See’ Viviane Forrester 50‘Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy’ Shoshana Felman 51Writing Women’s Literary History Margaret J. M. Ezell 52The Professionalization of Women Writers in Eighteenth-Century BritainBetty A. Schellenberg 562 Women and Literary Production Introduction 61Extracts from:A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf 70‘Professions for Women’Virginia Woolf 75Silences Tillie Olsen 77The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary ImaginationSandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar 82‘Writing Like a Woman: A Question of Politics’ Terry Lovell 90The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen Jane Spencer 93‘Emily Brontë in the Hands of Male Critics’ Carol Ohmann 95‘Toward a Black Feminist Criticism’ Barbara Smith 98‘Christina Rossetti: Diary of a Feminist Reading’Isobel Armstrong 103‘Conversations’ Hélène Cixous Et Al. 106‘Mapping Contemporary Women’s Fiction after Bourdieu’Mary Eagleton 110Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Writing in Britain Claire Squires 115The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the MarginsGraham Huggan 119The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace 1678–1730Paula Mcdowell 123‘Black Woman Talk’ Black Woman Talk Collective 126‘Introduction’, Let It be Told: Essays by Black Women in BritainLauretta Ngcobo 127Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing PoliticsSimone Murray 129‘Pushed to the Margins: The Slow Death and Possible Rebirth of the Feminist Bookstore’ Kathryn Mcgrath 1313 Gender and GenreIntroduction 135A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf 143Literary WomenEllen Moers 145‘Femininity, Narrative and Psychoanalysis’Juliet Mitchell 147Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel Nancy Armstrong 151‘Towards a Feminist Narratology’Susan S. Lanser 154Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian NarrativesMarilyn R. Farwell 158Having a Good Cry: Effeminate Feelings and Pop-Culture Forms Robyn R. Warhol 161‘Introduction’, Aurora Leigh and Other PoemsCora Kaplan 163‘Small Island People: Black British Women Playwrights’Meenakshi Ponnuswami 166‘Varieties of Women’s Writing’ Clare Brant 167Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion Rosemary Jackson 172Female Desire: Women’s Sexuality Today Rosalind Coward 173Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars Alison Light 177The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism Nicola Humble 182‘Afterword: The New Woman’s Fiction’ Shari Benstock 186Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women’s FictionSusan Sellers 1874 Towards Definitions of Feminist WritingIntroduction 191‘“This Novel Changes Lives”: Are Women’s Novels Feminist Novels? A Response to Rebecca O’Rourke’s Article “Summer Reading”’ Rosalind Coward 199‘Feminism and the Definition of Cultural Politics’Michèle Barrett 203‘What is Lesbian Literature? Forming a Historical Canon’Lillian Faderman 207‘American Feminist Literary Criticism: A Bibliographical Introduction’ Cheri Register 210‘Introduction’, Feminism Meets Queer TheoryElizabeth Weed 216‘Dancing through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism’ Annette Kolodny 219‘Towards a Feminist Poetics’ Elaine Showalter 222Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory Toril Moi 225Gynesis: Configurations of Woman and ModernityAlice A. Jardine 228‘Flight Reservations: The Anglo-American/French Divide in Feminist Criticism’ Rachel Bowlby 230‘Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism’Nancy Fraser And Linda J. Nicholson 234‘Mapping the Lesbian Postmodern’Robyn Wiegman 235Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics Bell Hooks 238Signs and Cities: Black Literary PostmodernismMadhu Dubey 241Mappings: Feminism and the Cultural Geographies of Encounter Susan Stanford Friedman 244The Radical Aesthetic Isobel Armstrong 248What is a Woman? And Other Essays Toril Moi 251Undoing Gender Judith Butler 254‘The Race for Theory’Barbara Christian 257‘Woman Can Never Be Defined’ Julia Kristeva 261‘Discursive Desire: Catherine Belsey’s Feminism’Marysa Demoor And Jürgen Pieters 2625 Writing, Reading and DifferenceIntroduction 266Literary Women Ellen Moers 275Thinking about Women Mary Ellmann 277‘Writing Like a Woman’ Peggy Kamuf 280Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist CriticismMary Jacobus 282‘Talking about Polylogue’ Julia Kristeva 284Subject to Change: Reading Feminist WritingNancy K. Miller 286The Resisting Reader Judith Fetterley 288‘Reading as a Woman’ Jonathan Culler 291‘Reading Like a Man’ Robert Scholes 294‘How to Read a “Culturally Different” Book’Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 296The Woman Reader, 1837–1914 Kate Flint 300Provincial Readers in Eighteenth-Century EnglandJan Fergus 303Reading Groups Jenny Hartley 306‘The Powers of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine’ Luce Irigaray 308‘The Laugh of the Medusa’Hélène Cixous 311‘Castration or Decapitation?’ Hélène Cixous 314‘Language and Revolution: The Franco–American Dis-connection’ Domna C. Stanton 316‘Made in America: “French Feminism” in Academia’Claire Goldberg Moses 318Hélène Cixous Rootprints: Memory and Life WritingHélène Cixous And Mireille Calle-Gruber 3216 Locating the SubjectIntroduction 325‘A Question of Subjectivity: An Interview’Julia Kristeva 333‘Femininity and Its Discontents’ Jacqueline Rose 335Critical Practice Catherine Belsey 340What Does a Woman Want? Reading and Sexual DifferenceShoshana Felman 343A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class DesireJanice A. Radway 347‘Sexual Difference and Collective Identities: The New Global Constellation’Seyla Benhabib 349‘Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory’Linda Alcoff 352‘Upping the Anti (Sic) in Feminist Theory’Teresa De Lauretis 355Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and DifferenceDiana Fuss 358‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’Donna Haraway 361Borderlands/La Frontera: The New MestizaGloria Anzaldúa 366Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject Carole Boyce Davies 369‘The Straight Mind’ Monique Wittig 372Epistemology of the Closet Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick 375‘Of OncoMice and FemaleMen: Donna Haraway on Cyborg Ontology’ Kate Soper 3787 Writing ‘Glocal’Introduction 381En-gendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives Sangeeta Ray 389Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting IdentitiesAvtar Brah 391Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem Reina Lewis 393‘French Feminism in an International Frame’Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 396‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’Chandra Talpade Mohanty 399Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism Trinh T. Minh-Ha 402‘Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition’ Sara Suleri 405Writing Diaspora: Tactics of Intervention in Contemporary Cultural Studies Rey Chow 407Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and TransculturationMary Louise Pratt 411Victorian Travel Writing and Imperial Violence: British Writing on Africa 1855–1902 Laura E. Franey 415‘Introduction’, Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women WritersAmal Amireh And Lisa Suhair Majaj 417Postcolonial Studies: A Materialist Critique Benita Parry 420Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979–1985Adrienne Rich 423Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement Caren Kaplan 425Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Context Anne Mcclintock 428Transnational Women’s Fiction: Unsettling Home and Homeland Susan Strehle 432Stories of Women: Gender and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation Elleke Boehmer 434Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist TheoryRosi Braidotti 437Bibliography of Extracts 439Index 447