Description
These twenty autobiographical essays by eminent feminist literary critics explore the process by which women scholars became feminist scholars, articulating the connections between the personal and political in their lives and work. They describe the experiences that radicalised women within academia and without, as students, professors, scholars, political activists, women. From these diverse histories a collective history emerges of the development of feminism as an intellectual and social movement, as a heuristic tool, as the redefinition of knowledge and power.
This book presents a history of the field through the eyes of those who have created it. Offering a spectrum of experiences and critical positions that engage with current debates in feminism, it will be valuable to teachers and students of feminist theory, women窶冱 studies, and the history of the women窶冱 movement. It will interest female writers and scholars in all disciplines and anyone who cares about feminism and its future.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Looking At History Part 1: Decades 2. Decades 3. History/My History 4. Imaginary Gardens with Real Frogs in Them: Feminist Euphora and the Franco-American Divide, 1976-88 5. Radical Optimism, Maternal Materialism and Teaching Literature Part 2: Reading/Writing Against the Grain 6. Reader, I Married Me: A Polygynous Memoir 7. In Academia, and Out: The Experience of a Lesbian Feminist Literary Critic 8. Except Thou Ravish Me: Penetrations into the Life of the (Feminine) Mind Molly Hite 9. The Long Goodbye: Against the Personal Testimony or, an Infant Grifter Grows Up 10. Feminism, the Roaring Girls and Me Part 3: Legacies 11. Mother 12. Getting Gendered 13. Loss and Recovery: Homes Away from Home 14. Being the Subject and the Object: Reading African-American Women窶冱 Novels 15. Generational Differences: Reliving Mother-Daughter Conflicts Part 4: Connections and Contradictions 16. Stormy Weather: A Memoir of the Second Wave 17. On Having a Personal Voice 18. Asians in Anglo-American Feminism: Reciprocity and Resistance 19. Growing Up Theoretical: Across the Divide. Afterword
