Feminist Literary Studies, An Introduction

This book is the first broad survey of feminist critical theory and practice, and one of the few contributions to the subject to have been written by a male academic, in the belief that the basic premise of feminist literary criticism - that gender is the crucial factor in the production, circulation, and reception of literary texts - is of fundamental importance to all serious students of literature. The book focuses on three main aspects: first, the impact of Marxism, structuralism, and post-structuralism on feminist critical practice; second, the argument that in a male-dominated society literary language, conventions, and forms are shaped by masculine biases; third, analyses of the characteristic styles and traditions of women's writing as distinct from men's.