| Description |
xi, 212 pages ; 23 cm |
| Contents |
Preface: White Woman Speaks with Forked Tongue -- Introduction: criticism as autobiography -- Pt. I. Bilingualism and Translation. 1. 'Her legs bestrid the Channel': writing in two languages. 2. Ananas/pineapple. 3. To fly/to steal: no more? Translating French feminisms into English -- Pt. II. French Feminisms. 4. How to make a Bertha out of an Antoinette and why every Jane needs a Bertha: Psych et Po and French feminisms. 5. 'Bliss was it in that dawn...': contemporary French women's writing and the Editions des femmes. 6. Helene Cixous: from inner theatre to world theatre. 7. How The Second Sex stopped my aunt from watering the horse-chestnuts: Simone de Beauvoir and contemporary feminism -- Pt. III. Forging a Feminist Aesthetics. 8. Doris Lessing: of mud and other matter -- The Children of Violence. 9. Too short for a book? The Thousand and One Nights: the short story and the book. 10. A rook called Joseph: Virginia Woolf |
| Summary |
The appraisals here of a broad range of women's writing suggests a different direction for feminist criticism, combining as it does intellectual debate and textual analysis with fictional example and autobiographical detail. In addressing the need for the critic to say "I" and to own judgements and statements instead of attributing these to an apparently impersonal third person, the author points up some of the shortcomings of much prevailing "feminist" analysis, challenging the foundations of the Anglo-American feminist idea. Purposely avoiding the "totalizing" effect of much academic criticism, the writer/critic finds a different format and methodology for her insights and observations on a range of writers, from Doris Lessing to Helene Cixous. Her analyses of the links between criticism and autobiography enable her to highlight the absurdity of attempting to write in the light of recent critical and scientific knowledge as if the self were a stable, unified construct |
| Analysis |
English literature |
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Autobiography Women authors |
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English Women History Theory, etc |
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Feminism France History 20th century |
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Feminism Great History 20th century |
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French Women History Theory, etc |
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Women France History 20th century |
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Women Great History 20th century |
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English literature. Women writers. - Critical studies |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Autobiography -- Women authors.
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English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism.
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English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
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Feminism and literature -- France -- History -- 20th century.
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Feminism and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century.
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Feminism and literature.
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Feminist literary criticism.
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French literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc
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French literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism.
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Women and literature -- France -- History -- 20th century.
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Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century.
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Women and literature.
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Women authors -- History and criticism.
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| LC no. |
91156741 |
| ISBN |
0415049520 |
|
0415049539 |
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