In the landmark 1991 edition of Feminisms, Robyn Warhol and Diane Price Herndl assembled the most comprehensive collection of American and British feminist literary criticism ever published. In this revised edition, the editors have updated the volume, in keeping with the expanding parameters of feminist literary discourse. With the inclusion of more than two dozen new essays, along with a major reorganization of the sections in which they appear, Warhol and Price Herndl have again established the measure for representing the latest developments in the field of feminist literary theory. Believing that the feminist movement can only move forward "where difference commands attention, not dismissal or negativism," they have continued the original collection's mission of providing a multiplicity of perspectives and approaches. This revised edition contains three new sections ("Conflict," "Gaze," and "Practice") and includes more selections by and about women of color and lesbians.
Reviews
Library Journal
Warhol and Herndl (English, Univ. of Vermont) have cumulated 58 previously published essays on 19th- and 20th-century British and North American texts that were written between the mid-1970s and 1990 by 53 widely known feminist literary critics representing a variety of critical perspectives, including Anglo-American, French, Marxist, structuralist, new historicist, and psychoanalytic, among others. This anthology, the most comprehensive available, is one of the few that crosses the boundaries between these various feminist approaches. In addition, the editors' illuminating summaries of each essay in their introductions to the book's 13 sections, each of which is devoted to a particular issue in feminist criticism, constitute a valuable overview of the field and distinguish the book from other collections. The editors offer a strong case for their selections and for some notable omissions. Highly recommended for collections in literary criticism and women's studies.-- Ellen Finnie Duranceau, MIT , Cambridge, Mass.