FEMINIST LITERARY THEORY

A Reader

Second Edition

Edited byMary Eagleton

P u b I i s h e r s

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xv

1 Finding a Female TraditionIntroduction 1Extracts from:

A Room of One's Own VIRGINIA WOOLF 9Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 10A Literature of Their Own:British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing

ELAINE SHOW ALTER 14'What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist

Literary Criticism' BONNIE ZIMMERMAN 18'Compulsory Heterosexuality andXesbian Existence' ADRIENNE RICH 24'Saving the Life That Is Your Own: The Importance of Models in the

Artist's Life ALICE WALKER 30Title Essay In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens ALICE WALKER 33Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory CHRIS WEEDON 36'Race and Gender in the Shaping of the American Literary Canon:

A Case Study from the Twenties' PAUL LAUTER 39Women's Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis

MICHELE BARRETT 45'Writing "Race" and the Difference it Makes' HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR 46'Parables and Politics: Feminist Criticism in 1986' NANCY K. MILLER 48Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist Criticism MARY JACOBUS 51'Happy Families? Feminist Reproduction and Matrilineal Thought'

LINDA R. WILLIAMS 52'What Women's Eyes See' VIVIANE FORRESTER 56'Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy' SHOSHANA FELMAN 58

vi CONTENTS

'French Feminism in an International Frame' GAYATRICHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK 59

Feminist Literary History: A Defence JANET TODD 62

2 Women and Literary ProductionIntroduction 66Extracts from:

A Room of One's Own VIRGINIA WOOLF 73'Professions for, Women' VIRGINIA WOOLF 78Silences TILLIE OLSEN 80'When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision' ADRIENNE RICH 84The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century

Literary Imagination SANDRA M. GILBERT and SUSAN GUBAR 91Consuming Fiction TERRY LOVELL 99Reviewing the Reviews: A Woman's Place on the Book Page WOMEN IN

PUBLISHING 100'Paradoxes and Dilemmas, the Woman as Writer' MARGARET ATWOOD 103.'Emily Bronte in the Hands of Male Critics' CAROL OHMANN 105'Naming the Fictions' ELIZABETH BAINES 109'Christina Rossetti: Diary of a Feminist Reading' ISOBEL ARMSTRONG 111'Conversations' HELENE CIXOUS et al. 114'Writing Like a Woman: A Question of Politics' TERRY LOVELL 118The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen JANE

SPENCER 120'Toward a Black Feminist Criticism' BARBARA SMITH 122'Black Woman Talk' BLACK WOMAN TALK COLLECTIVE - 127Editor's Introduction Let It Be Told: Essays by Black Women in Britain

LAURETTA NGCOBO 128'A Press of One's Own'CATH JACKSON 129'Bad Apple' JOAN SCANLON and JULIA SWINDELLS 131

3 Gender and GenreIntroduction 137Extracts from:

Feminist Literary Studies: An Introduction K. K. RUTHVEN 144A Room of One's Own VIRGINIA WOOLF 145The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding

IAN WATT 147Consuming Fiction TERRY LOVELL 149Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 152'Femininity, Narrative and Psychoanalysis' JULIET MITCHELL 154

CONTENTS vii

Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel NANCYARMSTRONG 158

'The Buried Letter: Feminism and Romanticism in Villette' MARYJACOBUS 161

Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion ROSEMARY JACKSON 162'Representation vs. Communication' ELIZABETH COWIE, CLAIRE JOHNSTON,

CORA KAPLAN, MARY KELLY, JACQUELINE ROSE, MARIE YATES 164Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change

RITA FELSKI 165' "Spiritual Whoredom": An Essay on Female Prophets in the

Seventeenth Century' CHRISTINE BERG and PHILIPPA BERRY 169'The Impact of Feminism on the Theatre' MICHELENE WANDOR 171Editors' Introduction Shakespeare's Sisters: Feminist Essays on Women

Poets SANDRA M. GILBERT and SUSAN GUBAR 174Editor's Introduction Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh and Other

Poems CORA KAPLAN 180Editor's Introduction Daring to Dream: Utopian Stories by United States

Women, 1836-1919 CAROL FARLEY KESSLER 183In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction SARAH

LEFANU 187Female Desire: Women's Sexuality Today ROSALIND COWARD 189'Mass Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different' ANN BARR

SNITOW 192'Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context'

JANICE A. RADWAY 199Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars

ALISON LIGHT 205Feminist Fiction: Feminist Uses of Generic Fiction ANNE CRANNY-FRANCIS 209

4 Towards Definitions of Feminist WritingIntroduction . 213Extracts from:

' "This Novel Changes Lives": Are Women's Novels Feminist Novels?A Response to Rebecca O'Rourke's Article "Summer Reading" 'ROSALIND COWARD 221

'Feminism and the Definition of Cultural Politics' MICHELE BARRETT 226'New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism' DEBORAH E. MCDOWELL 230'American Feminist Literary Criticism: A Bibliographical Introduction'

CHERI REGISTER 236'Feminism and the Literary Critic' ALISON LIGHT 242'Speaking/Writing/Fetninism' CORA KAPLAN 245

viii CONTENTS

Mirror Writing: An Autobiography ELIZABETH WILSON 247'Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory,

Practice and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism' ANNETTEKOLODNY 250

'Toward a Feminist Poetics' ELAINE SHOWALTER 254Sexual/ Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory TORIL MOI 257Gynesis: Configurations of Woman and Modernity ALICE A. JARDINE 260'Feminism and Deconstruction' MARY POOVEY 262'Woman Can Never Be Defined' JULIA KRISTEVA 267'Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter between Feminism

and Postmodernism' NANCY FRASER and LINDA J. NICHOLSON 268'Flight Reservations: The Anglo-American/French Divide in Feminist

Criticism' RACHEL BOWLBY 271'The Race for Theory' BARBARA CHRISTIAN 274'Postmodern Blackness' Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics bELL

hooKS 280

5 Writing, Reading and DifferenceIntroduction 284Extracts from:

'Is There a Female Voice? Joyce Carol Oates Replies'JOYCE CAROL OATES 292

Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 293Thinking About Women MARY ELLMANN 295'Writing Like a Woman' PEGGY KAMUF 298Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist Criticism MARY JACOBUS 299'Talking about Polylogue'1 JULIA KRISTEVA 301The Resisting Reader JUDITH FETTERLEY 303'Reading as a Woman' JONATHAN CULLER 306'Reading like a Man' ROBERT SCHOLES 309The Sexual Fix STEPHEN HEATH 311'The Powers of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine' LUCE

IRIGARAY 316'The Laugh of the Medusa' HELENE CIXOUS 320'Castration or Decapitation?' HELENE QXOUS 322'A Feminine Economy: Some Preliminary Thoughts' JUDITH STILL 325'For the Etruscans: Sexual Difference and Artistic Production -

The Debate over a Female Aesthetic' FRANCES JAFFER quoted byRACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS 327

'Enslaved Enclave' CATHERINE CLEMENT 327

CONTENTS ix

'Writing the Body: Toward An Understanding of "L'EcritureFeminine" ' ANN ROSALIND JONES 328

'Love, Mourning and Metaphor: Terms of Identity' KADIATU KANNEH 331'Language and Revolution: The Franco-American Dis-Connection'

DOMNA C. STANTON . 335'Variations on Common Themes' EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE OF

QUESTIONS FEMINISTES 337

6 Locating the SubjectIntroduction 339Extracts from:

'A Question of Subjectivity: An Interview' JULIA KRISTEVA. 351'Femininity and its Discontents' JACQUELINE ROSE 353Critical Practice CATHERINE BELSEY 357Feminine'Fictions: Revisiting the Postmodern PATRICIA WAUGH 360'Feminism, Humanism and Postmodernism' KATE SOPER 364Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity JUDITH BUTLER 367'Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism' SEYLA BENHABIB 373'Cultural Feminism versus Post-structuralism: The Identity Crisis in

Feminist Theory' LINDA ALCOFF 378'Upping the Anti (sic) in Feminist Theory' TERESA DE LAURETIS 382Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference DIANA FUSS 385'Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses'

CHANDRA TALPADE MOHANTY 388Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism

TRINH T. MINH-HA _. 394'A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist

Feminism in the 1980s' DONNA HARAWAY 399Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo GLORIA ANZALDUA 404'The Straight Mind' MONIQUE WITTIG 408Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary

Feminist Theory Rosi BRAIDOTTI 411

Bibliography of Extracts 421

Index 429