Feminist Literary Criticism and Theory

Individual Feminists:

Chantal Chawaf

Hélène Cixous

Teresa deLauretis

Luce Irigaray

Eva Feder Kittay

Julia Kristeva

Nathalie Sarraute

Internet Links

The "Nobel Prize Internet Archive" has a complete list of women Nobel Prize Laureates in the area of Literature here.

Introduction

This page includes information on different literary Genres, specific Historical Periods, Pedagogical issues, Politics and literature, and literary Theory.



Genres

Autobiography / Autography / Autofiction

Perreault, Jeanne. Writing Selves: Contemporary Feminist Autography. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson, ed. De/Colonizing the Subject: The Politics of Gender in Women's Autobiography. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1992.



Detective / Crime Fiction

Munt, Sally. Murder By the Book? Feminism and the Crime Novel. Routledge, 1994.



Drama (Plays and Screenplays)

Bowen, Barbara E. Gender in the Theater of War: Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. Garland Pub., 1993.

Burke, Sally. American Feminist Playwrights: A Critical History. Twayne Pub., 1996

Callaghan, Dympna, Lorraine Helms, and Jyotsna Singh. The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist Politics. Blackwell Pub., 1994.

Gervitz, Susan. Narrative's Journey: The Fiction and Film Writing of Dorothy Richardson. 1996.

Hodkinson, Yvonne. Female Parts: The Art and Politics of Women Playwrights. Paul and Co. Pub. Consortium, 1991.



General

Kester-Shelton, Pamela, ed. Feminist Writers. St. James Press, 1996.

Lauret, Maria. Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. Routledge, 1994.

Walker, Barbara G. Feminist Fairy Tales. Harper San Francisco, 1997.



Narrative

Singley, Carol J. and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, ed. Anxious Power: Reading, Writing, and Ambivalence in Narrative by Women. SUNY Press, 1993.



Novels

Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. Oxford Univ. Press, 1987.

Carlin, Deborah. Cather, Canon, and the Politics of Reading. 1992.

Castellanos, Gabriela. Laughter, War, and Feminism: Elements of Carnival in Three of Jane Austen's Novels. Peter Lang Pub., 1994.

Doherty, Patricia. Marge Piercy: An Annotated Bibliography. 1997.

Dorscht, Susan Rudy. Women, Reading, Kroetsch: Telling the Difference. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1991.

Greene, Gayle. Changing the Story: Feminist Fiction and the Tradition. Indiana Univ. Press, 1991.

Higonnet, Margaret R., ed. The Sense of Sex: Feminist Perspectives on Hardy. Univ. of Illinois Press, 1993.

Mandelker, Amy. Framing Anna Karenina: Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel. Ohio State Univ. Press, 1993.

Michael, Magali Cornier. Feminism and the Postmodern Impulse: Post-World War II Fiction. 1996.

Payant, Katherine B. Becoming and Bonding: Contemporary Feminism and Popular Fiction by American Women Writers. 1993.

Stern, Madeleine B., ed. The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1996.



Poetry

Cameron, Keith. Louise Labé: Renaissance Poet and Feminist. Berg Pub. Ltd., 1990.

Fountain, Gay and Peter Brazeau. Remembering Elizabeth Bishop: An Oral Biography. Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1996.

Freedman, Diane P. An Alchemy of Genres: Cross-Genre Writing by American Feminist Poet-Critics. 1992.

Hogue, Cynthia. Scheming Women: Poetry, Privilege, and the Politics of Subjectivity. SUNY Press, 1998.

Markey, Janice. A New Tradition? The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Adrienne Rich: A Study of Feminism and Poetry. 1988.

Montefiore, Jan. Feminism and Poetry: Language, Experience, Identity in Women's Writing. 1994.

Sakelliou-Schultz, Liana. Feminist Criticism of American Women Poets: An Annotated Bibliography, 1975-1993. Garland Pub., 1994.

Templeton, Alice. The Dream and the Dialogue: Adrienne Rich's Feminist Poetics. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1995.

Zwarg, Christina. Feminist Conversations: Fuller, Emerson, and the Play of Reading. Cornell Univ. Press, 1995.



Rhetoric

Campbell, JoAnn, ed. Toward a Feminist Rhetoric: The Writing of Gertrude Buck. Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.

Falco, Maria J., ed. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. Penn State Univ. Press, 1996.



Science Fiction

Burwell, Jennifer. Notes on Nowhere: Feminism, Utopian Logic, and Social Transformation. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1997.



Short Stories

Dyman, Jenni. Lurking Feminism: The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. Peter Lang Pub., 1996.



Utopian Literature

Bammer, Angelika. Partial Visions: Feminism and Utopianism in the 1970s. Routledge, 1991.

Sargisson, Lucy. Contemporary Feminist Utopianism. Routledge, 1996.



Historical Periods

Classical

Cohen, Beth, ed. The Distaff Side: Representing the Female in Homer's 'Odyssey'. Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.

Doherty, Lillian Eileen. Siren Songs: Gender, Audiences, and Narrators in the Odyssey. Univ. of Michigan Press, 1995.

McManus, Barbara F. Classics and Feminism: Gendering the Classics. Twayne Pub., 1997.

Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin. Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Cornell Univ. Press, 1993.

Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkmin and Amy Richlin, ed. Feminist Theory and the Classics. Routledge, 1993.

Wilson, Lyn Hatherly. Sappho's Sweetbitter Songs: Configurations of Female and Male in Ancient Greek Lyric. Routledge, 1996.



Medieval

Evans, Ruth and Lesley Johnson. Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Sect. Routledge, 1994.

Lomperis, Linda and Sarah Stanbury, ed. Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Literature. 1993.



Renaissance

Bowen, Barbara E. Gender in the Theater of War: Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. Garland Pub., 1993.

Cameron, Keith. Louise Labé: Renaissance Poet and Feminist. Berg Pub. Ltd., 1990.

Callaghan, Dympna, Lorraine Helms, and Jyotsna Singh. The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist Politics. Blackwell Pub., 1994.

Howard, Jean and Phyllis Rackin. Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories. Routledge, 1997.

Jordan, Constance. Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. 1990.

Young, Douglas M. The Feminist Voices in Restoration Comedy: The Virtuous Women in the Play-Worlds of Etherege, Wycherley, and Congreve. Univ. Press of America, 1997.



17th Century

Hinds, Hilary. God's Englishwomen: Seventeenth-Century Radical Sectarian Writing and Feminist Criticism. Manchester Univ. Press, 1996.

Young, Douglas M. The Feminist Voices in Restoration Comedy: The Virtuous Women in the Play-Worlds of Etherage, Wycherley and Congreve. Univ. Press of America, 1997.



19th Century

Castellanos, Gabriela. Laughter, War, and Feminism: Elements of Carnival in Three of Jane Austen's Novels. Peter Lang Pub., 1994.

Harman, Barbara Leah and Susan Meyer, ed. The New Nineteenth Century: Feminist Readings of Underread Victorian Fiction. Garland Pub., 1996.

Hoeveler, Diane Long. Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontes. Penn State University Press, 1998.

Kranidis, Rita S. Subversive Discourse: The Cultural Production of Late Victorian Feminist Novels. St. Martins Press, 1995.

Mandelker, Amy. Framing Anna Karenina: Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel. Ohio State Univ. Press, 1993.

Small, Helen. Love's Madness: Medicine, the Novel, and Female Insanity, 1800-1865. Clarendon Press, 1996.

Stern, Madeleine B., ed. The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1996.



20th Century

Bammer, Angelika. Partial Visions: Feminism and Utopianism in the 1970s. Routledge, 1991.

Birkett, Jennifer and Elizabeth Harvey, ed. Determined Women: Studies in the Construction of the Female Subject, 1900-90. 1991.

Bowlby, Rachel. Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1997.

Burke, Sally. American Feminist Playwrights: A Critical History. Twayne Pub., 1996.

Freedman, Diane P. An Alchemy of Genres: Cross-Genre Writing by American Feminist Poet-Critics. Univ. Press of Virginia, 1992.

Gervitz, Susan. Narrative's Journey: The Fiction and Film Writing of Dorothy Richardson. 1996.

Hodkinson, Yvonne. Female Parts: The Art and Politics of Female Playwrights. Paul and Co. Pub., 1991.

Kester-Shelton, Pamela, ed. Feminist Writers. St. James Press, 1996.

Lauret, Maria. Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. Routledge, 1994.

Markey, Janice. A New Tradition? The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Adrienne Rich: A Study of Feminism and Poetry. 1988.

Michael, Magali Cornier. Feminism and the Postmodern Impulse: Post-World War II Fiction. 1996.

Montefiore, Jan. Feminism and Poetry: Language, Experience, Identity in Women's Writing. 1994.

Payant, Katherine B. Becoming and Bonding: Contemporary Feminism and Popular Fiction by American Women Writers. Greenwood Pub. Group, 1993.

Sakelliou-Schultz, Liana. Feminist Criticism of American Women Poets: An Annotated Bibliography, 1975-1993. Garland Pub., 1994.

Templeton, Alice. The Dream and the Dialogue: Adrienne Rich's Feminist Poetics. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1994

Zwarg, Christina. Feminist Conversations: Fuller, Emerson, and the Play of Reading. Cornell Univ. Press, 1995.



Pedagogical Issues

Bogdon, Deanne. From the Inside Out: On First Teaching Women's Literature and Feminist Criticism. 1987.

Kaplan, Carla. The Erotics of Talk: Women's Writing and Feminist Paradigms. Oxford Univ. Press, 1996.

Thompson, Ann and Helen Wilcox, ed. Teaching Women: Feminism and English Studies. 1989.



Politics and Literature

Belsey, Catherine and Jane Moore, ed. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. 1989.

Showalter, Elaine. Sister's Choice: Traditions and Change in American Women's Writing. Clarendon Press, 1991.



Literary Theory

Baron, Dennis. Grammar and Gender. Yale Univ. Press, 1986.

Cameron, Deborah, ed. The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader. Second Edition. Routledge, 1998.

Castro-Klarén, Sara. Literature, Feminism and the Alpha Male: A Search Beyond the Dominance Metaphor. 1994.

Dasilva, Fabio B. and Matthew Kanjirathinkal, ed. Her Voices: Hermeneutics of the Feminine. 1996.

deLauretis, Teresa, Andreas Huyssen and Kathleen Woodward, ed. The Technological Imagination: Theories and Fictions. Madison: Coda Press, 1980.

Felman, Shoshana. What Does a Woman Want? Reading and Sexual Difference. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993.

Fendler, Susanne, ed. Feminist Contributions to the Literary Canon: Setting Standards of Taste. Mellen, 1997.

Fisher, Jerilyn and Ellen S. Silber, ed. Analyzing the Different Voice: Feminist Psychological Theory and Literary Texts. Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.

Florence, Penny and Dee Reynolds, ed. Feminist Subjects, Multi-Media: Cultural Methodologies. 1995.

Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-Representation. Cornell Univ. Press, 1994.

Godard, Barbara, ed. Bibliography of Feminist Criticism. 1987.

Hedges, Elaine and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, ed. Listening to Silences: New Essays in Feminist Criticism. 1994.

Hill, Alette Olin. Mother Tongue, Father Time: A Decade of Linguistic Revolt. Indiana Univ. Press, 1986.

Hohne, Karen and Helen Wussow, ed. A Dialogue of Voices: Feminist Literary Theory and Bakhtin. 1994.

Humm, Maggie, ed. Practicing Feminist Criticism: An Introduction. 1995.

Humm, Maggie. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994.

Kaplan, Carla. The Erotics of Talk: Women's Writing and Feminist Paradigms. Oxford Univ. Press, 1996.

Kramarae, Cheris. The Voices and Words of Women and Men. 1980.

Kuribayashi, Tomoko and Julie Tharp, ed. Creating Safe Space: Violence and Women's Writing. 1998.

Lakoff, Robin. Language and Woman's Place. 1975.

Lydon, Mary. Skirting the Issue: Essays in Literary Theory. 1995.

McConnel-Ginet, Sally, Ruth Borker and Nelly Furman, ed. Women and Language in Literature and Society. Greenwood Pub. Group, 1980.

Meaney, Gerardine. (Un)like Subjects: Women, Theory, Fiction. 1993.

Meese, Elizabeth A. Crossing the Double-Cross: The Practice of Feminist Criticism. Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1986.

Miller, Casey and Kate Swift. Words and Women. 1976.

Miller, Jane. Seductions: Studies in Reading and Culture. Harvard Univ. Press, 1991.

Miller, Nancy K. Getting Personal: Feminist Occasions and Other Autobiographical Acts. Routledge, 1991.

Miller, Nancy K. Subject to Change: Reading Feminist Writing. Columbia Univ. Press, 1988.

Mills, Sara, ed. Feminist Readings/Feminists Reading. Univ. Press of Virginia, 1989.

Mills, Sara. Feminist Stylistics. Routledge, 1995.

Moers, Ellen. Literary Women. Oxford Univ. Press, 1985.

Mora, Gabriela and Karen S. Van Hooft, ed. Theory and Practice of Feminist Literary Criticism. Bilingual Review Press, 1982.

Morris, Pam. Literature and Feminism: An Introduction. 1993.

Parker, Alice A. and Elizabeth A. Meese, ed. Feminist Critical Negotiations. Blackwell Pub., 1992.

Penfield, Joyce, ed. Women and Language in Transition. 1987.

Radner, Joan Newlon, ed. Feminist Messages: Coding in Women's Folk Culture. Univ. of Illinois Press, 1993.

Roe, Sue, Susan Sellers, Nicole Ward Jouve, and Michele Roberts. The Semi-Transparent Envelope: Women Writing -- Feminism and Fiction. Marion Boyars, 1994.

Sellers, Susan, ed. Feminist Criticism: Theory and Practice. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1991.

Spender, Dales. Man-Made Language. 1980.

Thorne, Barrie and Nancy Henley. Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance. 1975.

Warhol, Robyn R. and Diane Price Herndl, ed. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Rutgers Univ. Press, 1991.

Waxman, Barbara Frey. From the Hearth to the Open Road: A Feminist Study of Aging in Contemporary Literature. Greenwood Pub. Group, 1990.

Yaeger, Patricia. Honey-Mad Women: Emancipatory Strategies in Women's Writing. Columbia Univ. Press, 1988.

Zoonen, Liesbet van. Feminist Media Studies. Sage Pub., 1994.