Books in the library are organized by Call Number, which you can think of as a location code for topics and related subtopics. Most books on feminist art, art history and art theory are located in the N 72 call number range. If you feel like browsing what we have, this is the range to look in. Books on individual feminist and women artists, however, will be clasified by artistic movement and/ or medium.
Art and Feminism by
Widely acknowledged as both beautiful and intelligent, a sourcebook of art informed by feminism from the 1960s to the start of the 21st century, now available in paperback.
Art of Feminism by
"The sheer heft of lavishly produced images will be indispensable to scholars, critics, and artists." --Art Monthly Discover a rich showcase of the vibrant feminist aesthetic over the last 150 years: Once again, women are on the march. And since its inception in the 19th century, the Women's Movement has harnessed the power of images to transmit messages of social change and equality to the world. * Features more than 350 works of art, illustration, photography, performance, and graphic design along with essays examining the legacy of the radical canon * Highlights posters of the Suffrage Atelier, through the radical art of Judy Chicago and Carrie Mae Weems, to the cutting-edge work of Sethembile Msezane and Andrea Bowers * Broken into three sections: Suffrage and Beyond 1857-1949; Defining Feminism 1960-1988; and Redefining Feminism 1989-Present Readers familiar with Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History, Women Art and Society, and Women Artists will also enjoy The Art of Feminism and the messages it presents. A comprehensive international survey that traces the way feminists have shaped visual arts and media throughout history. Author Helena Reckitt is chair of the Women's Art Library and a senior lecturer in curating at Goldsmiths, University of London. * A heartbreaking and awe-inspiring collection of art that is a must-read for women and men alike * Makes an excellent gift for the strong women in your life
The Expanding Discourse by
A sequel to the pioneering volume, Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, published in 1982, The Expanding Discourse contains 29 essays on artists and issues from the Renaissance to the present, representing some of the best feminist art-historical writing of the past decade. Chronologically arranged, the essays demonstrate the abundance, diversity, and main conceptual trends in recent feminist scholarship.
New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century by
An ambitious overview of feminist art's incredible diversity as strategy and way of life in the 21st century In 1980 Lucy Lippard argued that feminist art is "neither a style nor a movement" but rather "a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life." New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century takes Lippard's statement as a point of departure, examining the values, strategies and ways of life reflected in recent feminist art. Although artworks made since 2000 are the primary focus, the objects and installations discussed span several generations, mediums, geographies and political sensibilities, conveying the heterogeneous, intergenerational and gender-fluid nature of feminist practices. In keeping with Griselda Pollock's observation that "feminism is a historical project and thus is itself constantly shaped and remodeled in relation to the living process of women's struggles," New Time argues that feminist art in the 21st century encompasses myriad perspectives and cannot be reduced to a single subject, style or agenda. This richly illustrated volume presents works by more than 75 artists and collectives, including Laura Aguilar, Louise Bourgeois, Andrea Bowers, Judy Chicago, Ellen Gallagher, Luchita Hurtado, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Kalup Linzy, Goshka Macuga, Mai-Thu Perret, Carol Rama, Kiki Smith, Sturtevant and Kara Walker. It examines their work though themes such as the stereotypes associated with hysteria; the gendered gaze; the revisiting of historical subjects through a feminist lens; fragmented representations of the female body; shifting categories of gender; activism, domesticity and labor; female anger; and feminist utopias.
The Power of Feminist Art by
"Since its inception nearly 25 years ago the Feminist Art movement has presented a challenge to mainstream modernism that has radically transformed the art world. In The Power of Feminist Art, coeditors Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, professors of art history at The American University in Washington, D.C., bring together many of the influential art historians, critics, and artists who participated in the events of the 1970s. Together, they have created this landmark volume, the first history and analysis documenting this fertile and dynamic period of artistic growth." "We learn about the first feminist art education programs, with artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro helping to lay the foundation; about the now legendary Womanhouse project; and about such banner exhibitions as "Women Artists: 1550-1950," organized in 1976 by art historians Linda Nochlin and Ann Sutherland Harris. We follow the development of the movement as seen in the various feminist organizations, networks, exhibitions, and publications it generated; and most particularly in the emergence of feminist art. Performance art, social protest and public art, and collaboration; exploration of such formerly taboo aesthetic areas as "Pattern and Decoration"; and subjects such as divinity and the body viewed from female perspectives are among the multiple aspects of the Feminist Art movement. The last section of the book traces the ups and downs of the movement, as experienced through the backlash of the 1980s and the resurgence of women's issues in the 1990s." "Uncompromising, probing, thoughtful, and as provocative and exciting as the period itself, The Power of Feminist Art is an immensely stunning book. Reproductions of hundreds of works of feminist art from the 1970s and beyond - by such artists as Judith Baca, Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Barbara Kruger, Ana Mendieta, Alice Neel, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Miriam Schapiro, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, May Stevens, and Hannah Wilke - and the meticulously researched essays make this an invaluable source book and major contribution to American art and social history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
We Wanted a Revolution by
A landmark exhibition on display at the Brooklyn Museum from April 21 through September 17, 2017, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85 examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism. It showcases the work of black women artists such as Emma Amos, Maren Hassinger, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O'Grady, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, and Betye Saar, making it one of the first major exhibitions to highlight the voices and experiences of women of color. In so doing, it reorients conversations around race, feminism, political action, art production, and art history in this significant historical period. The accompanying Sourcebook republishes an array of rare and little-known documents from the period by artists, writers, cultural critics, and art historians such as Gloria Anzaldúa, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Lucy R. Lippard, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Lowery Stokes Sims, Alice Walker, and Michelle Wallace. These documents include articles, manifestos, and letters from significant publications as well as interviews, some of which are reproduced in facsimile form. The Sourcebook also includes archival materials, rare ephemera, and an art-historical overview essay. Helping readers to move beyond standard narratives of art history and feminism, this volume will ignite further scholarship while showing the true breadth and diversity of black women's engagement with art, the art world, and politics from the 1960s to the 1980s. We Wanted a Revolution will also be on display at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles from October 13, 2017 through January 14, 2018; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York from February 17, 2018 through May 27, 2018; and at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston from June 26, 2018 through September 30, 2018. Published by the Brooklyn Museum and distributed by Duke University Press
The Story of Art Without Men by
How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway? Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States and the artist who really invented the "readymade." Explore the Dutch Golden Age, the astonishing work of postwar artists in Latin America, and the women defining art in the 2020s. Have your sense of art history overturned and your eyes opened to many artforms often ignored or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the history of art as it's never been told before.
Books in the library are organized by Call Number, which you can think of as a location code for topics and related subtopics. Many of our books on women in the design fields can be found in the NK 1174 call number range. However, others are located within call number ranges specific to a certain design field - advertising, graphic, illustration, etc. Books on individual feminist and women designers are also clasified by artistic movement and/ or medium.
Design in Conservative Times by
Conservativism in design: on the relationship between making things and making things great again Sporting two front covers (i.e. one on the back, one on the front) for its two thematic sections--Graphic Design in Conservative Times and Fashion Design in Conservative Times--this pocket-sized volume deconstructs and analyzes various forms of design against the backdrop of an increasingly conservative world. From the perspectives of feminism, race, queerness, engagement, ecology, production and preservation, Design in Conservative Times seeks to unravel the intricacies of design within conservative culture. Makers and thinkers from the fields of fashion design and graphic design contribute to the book, reflecting on conservative currents in the design landscape and exploring topics such as: What is the role of a progressive designer today? What constitutes a progressive design? We are stuck between outrageous production and excessive preservation--how do we disrupt this relationship?
Designing Motherhood by
More than eighty designs--iconic, archaic, quotidian, and taboo--that have defined the arc of human reproduction. While birth often brings great joy, making babies is a knotty enterprise. The designed objects that surround us when it comes to menstruation, birth control, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood vary as oddly, messily, and dramatically as the stereotypes suggest. This smart, image-rich, fashion-forward, and design-driven book explores more than eighty designs--iconic, conceptual, archaic, titillating, emotionally charged, or just plain strange--that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century. Each object tells a story. In striking images and engaging text, Designing Motherhood unfolds the compelling design histories and real-world uses of the objects that shape our reproductive experiences. The authors investigate the baby carrier, from the Snugli to BabyBj rn, and the (re)discovery of the varied traditions of baby wearing; the tie-waist skirt, famously worn by a pregnant Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy, and essential for camouflaging and slowly normalizing a public pregnancy; the home pregnancy kit, and its threat to the authority of male gynecologists; and more. Memorable images--including historical ads, found photos, and drawings--illustrate the crucial role design and material culture plays throughout the arc of human reproduction. The book features a prologue by Erica Chidi and a foreword by Alexandra Lange. Contributors Luz Argueta-Vogel, Zara Arshad, Nefertiti Austin, Juliana Rowen Barton, Lindsey Beal, Thomas Beatie, Caitlin Beach, Maricela Becerra, Joan E. Biren, Megan Brandow-Faller, Khiara M. Bridges, Heather DeWolf Bowser, Sophie Cavoulacos, Meegan Daigler, Anna Dhody, Christine Dodson, Henrike Dreier, Adam Dubrowski, Michelle Millar Fisher, Claire Dion Fletcher, Tekara Gainey, Lucy Gallun, Angela Garbes, Judy S. Gelles, Shoshana Batya Greenwald, Robert D. Hicks, Porsche Holland, Andrea Homer-Macdonald, Alexis Hope, Malika Kashyap, Karen Kleiman, Natalie Lira, Devorah L Marrus, Jessica Martucci, Sascha Mayer, Betsy Joslyn Mitchell, Ginger Mitchell, Mark Mitchell, Aidan O'Connor, Lauren Downing Peters, Nicole Pihema, Alice Rawsthorn, Helen Barchilon Redman, Airyka Rockefeller, Julie Rodelli, Raphaela Rosella, Loretta J. Ross, Ofelia Perez Ruiz, Hannah Ryan, Karin Satrom, Tae Smith, Orkan Telhan, Stephanie Tillman, Sandra Oyarzo Torres, Malika Verma, Erin Weisbart, Deb Willis, Carmen Winant, Brendan Winick, Flaura Koplin Winston
International Women in Design by
This volume is a compilation of the outstanding designs and personal insights of twenty three very talented professional designers who just happen to be women. This book lauds the efforts of a population linked by gender, interest and success, without the need to compare them to anyone else. From logos and corporate identity, to packaging, annual reports, posters, and more, over 300 projects are featured. all in full color. Interspersed throughout are excerpts of conversations with each of the designers. Valuable bits of insight and wisdom are revealed, helping us to better appreciate the diverse accomplishments and motivations of these women. This book contains many surprises within the wide range of work this evolution has produced. It is a snapshot that is all the more valuable for having frozen a time when these people were truly some of the best in the business. These women have earned a place in the evolution of graphics and their artwork tells the story beautifully.
Woman Made by
"Thoroughly international in scope, [Woman Made] is a compendium of disarming surprises." - Wall Street Journal The most comprehensive, fully illustrated book on women designers ever published - a celebration of more than 200 women product designers from the early twentieth century to the present day This glorious visual celebration of the most incredible and impactful design ever produced by women designers flips the script on what is historically considered a man's world. Featuring more than 200 designers from more than 50 countries, including icons and trailblazers past and present such as Ray Eames, Eileen Gray, Florence Knoll, Ilse Crawford, Faye Toogood, Nathalie du Pasquier, it records and illuminates the fascinating and overlooked history of women preeminent in the field. With each designer represented by a key product and short text, this fascinating A-Z survey shines a vital spotlight on the most extraordinary objects made by women designers but, more importantly, offers a compelling primer on the best in the field of design demonstrating that design is not - and never has been - a man's world.
Women Design by
From architects and product designers to textile artists and digital innovators, Women Design profiles a selection of the most dynamic female designers from the modern era, showcasing their finest work and celebrating their enduring influence. Design throughout history has been profoundly shaped and enhanced by the creativity of women; as practitioners, commentators, educators and commissioners. But in a narrative that eagerly promotes their male counterparts, their contributions are all too often overlooked. Women Design seeks to redress that balance, delving into the lives and works of some of the most talented design minds of the 20th and 21st centuries, from architects and artists to designers of all stripes. Through 21 engaging profiles, Women Design rediscovers and revels in the work of pioneers such as Eileen Gray, Lora Lamm and Lella Vignelli, while shining a spotlight on modern-day trailblazers including Kazuyo Sejima, Hella Jongerius and Neri Oxman. Richly illustrated with beautiful archival imagery, this is a rare glimpse into the working worlds of some of the most influential forces in contemporary design. Detailed text from design historian Libby Sellers brings the lives and work of these fascinating women to life, exploring how they overcame the challenges of working in a male-dominated world in order to see their groundbreaking creative visions realised. This book is an invaluable work, a must-read for anyone who claims to know about design, and an inspiring insight into the lives and legacies of 21 truly brilliant women whose work has irrevocably shaped the world around us today.
Women Designers in the U. S. A., 1900-2000 by
This stunning book celebrates the many contributions women designers have made to American culture over the past century in such fields as textiles, ceramics, graphics, furniture, interiors, metalwork, fashion, and jewelry. It includes designers from the arts and crafts and modernist movements, Native American and African American cultures, the post-World War II era, craft and "ethnic" revivals in the 1970s and 1980s, and the world of today. Many famous designers are discussed, including Eva Zeisel, Maria Martinez, Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, Edith Head, Clare McCardell, Bonnie Cashin, Elsa Peretti, and April Greiman, as well as less well-known designers. The book features seventeen essays by such eminent scholars as Valerie Steele, Ellen Lupton, Cheryl Buckley, and Edward S. Cooke, Jr. A timeline offers readers a broader context within which to understand the developments discussed in the text, as does Eileen Boris's chapter "Women in the United States, 1900-2000: Social Change and Changing Experience". In addition, an essay by Pat Kirkham and Lynne Walker explores such fascinating issues as the differing gendered nature of the various areas of design, training, and education, support networks, "race", class, cultural traditions, and the diverse ways in which women came to be, practiced as, and experienced being designers.
Women of Design by
The immense body of work produced by graphic designers around the world is astoundingly varied, rich and widely celebrated. Yet in publications, conferences, judging panels and other public realms, women designers tend to be outnumbered by their male counterparts whose appearances, work and achievements are constantly in the spotlight - luckily, it's a reversing trend. While Women of Design does not attempt to relieve the imbalance, it does bring full attention to the wonderful work, careers, and contributions of women designers, writers, teachers and entrepreneurs around the world. The women in this book have been divided into three groups, representative of the time in which their influence was most heartily felt: Groundbreakers, Pathfinders and Trailblazers. These three generations have helped shape the modern landscape of design. Included are interviews with April Greiman, Deborah Sussman, Louise Fili, Ann Willoughby, Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Sterling, Debbie Millman, Paula Scher, Jessica Helfand, Margo Chase, Luba Lukova, Petrula Vrontikis, Sharon Werner, Paola Antonelli and Marian Bantjes. Explore the work, ideals and ventures - all at the helm of these women - that have helped define the last 50 years of the graphic design profession, as represented by the women who helped establish design's relevance, importance and impact and the ones that carry their tradition into new territory. By asking the handful of female design stars to identify other talented women, then asking those women to suggest more still, Women of Design creates a web of influence and excellence that proves these women are worthy of attention.
Books in the library are organized by Call Number, which you can think of as a location code for topics and related subtopics. Most books on the societal and culture aspects of clothing and adornment in the GT 525 range, and books that are about the clothing and dress of particular times and place are also in the GTs, in rough order by geography and time period (ancient to contemporary). Books about individual feminist or women designers, however are in a completely different area of the library - the TT505s - in orde by designer or design house name.
Alternative Femininities by
Imagine a world where the oppressive, over-feminized images of women from advertising, television, films, and magazines have re-armed themselves with army boots, body modifications, and flamboyant hair. Is this just another fairy tale, and if so, why cant it be a reality? In Alternative Femininities, Samantha Holland unpacks the myth of model womanhood and considers how a particular group of real women define and practise femininity. These women, who see themselves as 'alternative', modify and subvert popular images of femininity. The choices they make in clothing, appearance and body modifications enable them to construct a personal look that is intimately tied to self-identity. Getting the balance right between over-femininity and not being feminine enough is a frequently voiced concern. Holland also addresses head-on the much-neglected issue of how ageing impacts on notions of femininity. What do these women think about fashion, gender and appearance as they grow older and less visible in our media-dominated society? Do they choose to tone down or stay out there, and what motivates their choice? A revealing look at contemporary femininity, Alternative Femininities gives voice to a previously silent group of women who struggle to resist sexist gender stereotypes, yet age with style, individuality and creativity. By looking at how real women negotiate self-image in an increasingly appearance-conscious society, Holland has provided a much-needed corrective to theoretical accounts of gender and femininity lacking in real data.
Fashion Cultures by
From the catwalk to the shopping mall, from the big screen to the art museum, fashion plays an increasingly central role in contemporary culture. Fashion Cultures investigates why we are so fascinated by fashion and the associated spheres of photography, magazines and television, and shopping. Fashion Cultures: * re-addresses the fashionable image, considering the work of designers from Paul Smith to Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan * investigates the radicalism of fashion photography, from William Klein to Corinne Day * considers fashion for the 'unfashionable body' (the old and the big), football and fashion, and geographies of style * explores the relationship between fashion and the moving image in discussions of female cinema icons - from Grace Kelly to Gwyneth Paltrow - and iconic male images - from Cary Grant to Malcolm X and Mr Darcy - that have redefined notions of masculinity and cool * makes a significant intervention into contemporary gender politics and theory, exploring themes such as spectacle, masquerade, and the struggle between fashion and feminism.
Fashioning the Body Politic by
With an afterword by Roger Griffin.Fashion is often thought of as a matter of personal taste, completely unconnected with the public domain of political life and citizenship. Overturning this perspective, this absorbing book reveals that, from the French Revolution to post-revolutionary China, fashion has played a significant role in political participation and protest. Fashioning the Body Politic challenges the perception of helpless fashion victims, subject to manipulation by consumerism and the fashion industry, and shows how, in a range of historical and national contexts, certain styles of dress and display were significant for both men and women's political participation and the formation of their identities as citizens.How did 'dressing up' in a variety of ways allow suffragette women to perform unconventional forms of political protest? In what ways did the uniforms of scouts and guides function to erect gender, racial and religious boundaries? Following the ban on traditional clothing in Imperial Russia, how did Russians appropriate European fashions and ethnic costumes to fashion new identities for themselves? Using these and a wealth of other case studies, Fashioning the Body Politic offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between men, women and fashion and shows that the political domain has always been permeated with the cultural practices of dress, display and bodily performance.
Fashion Talks by
Essays on the politics of everyday style.
Fresh Lipstick by
Fresh Lipstick shakes feminist fashion down to its Birkenstocks. Linda M. Scott wants to put an end to the belief that American women have to wear a colorless, shapeless uniform to achieve liberation and equality. A pointed attack on feminism's requisite style of dress, Fresh Lipstick argues that wearing high heels and using hair curlers does not deny you the right to seek advancement, empowerment, and equality. Scott asserts that judging someone on her fashion choices is as detrimental to advancement as judgments based on race, nationality, or social class. Fashion is an important mode of personal expression, not an indication of submission. She demonstrates that feminism's dogged reduction of fashion to sexual objectification has been motivated by a desire to control other women, not free them. This push for power has produced endless conflict from the movement's earliest days, hindering advances in women's rights by promoting exclusion. It is time for the "plain Jane" dress code of the revolution to be lifted, allowing all women to lead, even those wearing makeup and Manolos. Marching through 150 years of American dress history, Scott rips down feminism's favorite positions on fashion-from the power of images to the purpose of makeup. The illustrative examples-from flappers to Twiggy to body-piercing-are often poignant, occasionally infuriating, but always illuminating and thought-provoking. With Fresh Lipstick, Linda Scott gives women the ammunition to settle the fashion debate once and for all. She challenges feminists to move beyond appearances and to return their focus to the true mission of the movement: equality for all women everywhere.
Picturing the Woman-Child by
The childlike character of ideal femininity has long been critiqued by feminists, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Simone de Beauvoir. Yet, women continue to be represented as childlike in the western fashion media, despite the historical connotations of inferiority. This book questions why such images still hold appeal to contemporary women, after three, or even four, waves of feminism. Focusing on the period of 1990-2015, Picturing the Woman-Child traces the evolution of childlike femininity in British fashion magazines, including Vogue, i-D and Lula, Girl of my Dreams. These images draw upon a network of references, from Kinderwhore and Lolita to Alice in Wonderland and the femme-enfant of Surrealism. Alongside analysis of fashion photography, the book presents the findings of original research into audience reception. Inviting contemporary women to comment on images of the 'woman-child' provides an insight into the meaning of this figure as well as an evaluation of theory on the 'female gaze'. Both scholarly and accessible, the book paves the way for future studies on how readers make sense of fashion imagery.
Sex and Unisex by
Notorious as much for its fashion as for its music, the 1960s and 1970s produced provocative fashion trends that reflected the rising wave of gender politics and the sexual revolution. In an era when gender stereotypes were questioned and dismantled, and when the feminist and gay rights movements were gaining momentum and a voice, the fashion industry responded in kind. Designers from Paris to Hollywood imagined a future of equality and androgyny. The unisex movement affected all ages, with adult fashions trickling down to school-aged children and clothing for infants. Between 1965 and 1975, girls and women began wearing pants to school; boys enjoyed a brief "peacock revolution," sporting bold colors and patterns; and legal battles were fought over hair style and length. However, with the advent of Diane Von Furstenberg's wrap dress and the launch of Victoria's Secret, by the mid-1980s, unisex styles were nearly completely abandoned. Jo B. Paoletti traces the trajectory of unisex fashion against the backdrop of the popular issues of the day--from contraception access to girls' participation in sports. Combing mass-market catalogs, newspaper and magazine articles, cartoons, and trade publications for signs of the fashion debates, Paoletti provides a multigenerational study of the "white space" between (or beyond) masculine and feminine.
Books in the library are organized by Call Number, which you can think of as a location code for topics and related subtopics. The general area to find books on English lanuage feminist/women's literature and literary criticism is the PS152 call number range. We have an good collection of ebooks on this this topic as well, which can be access with you FIT username and password. Ebooks on this list (and elsewhere in this guide) are signified with the a miniature FIT logo.
American Feminists by 
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Feminisms by
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.
The Feminist Companion to Literature in English by
This work describes the lives and work of female literary figures.
Fictions of Authority by
Drawing on narratological and feminist theory, Susan Sniader Lanser explores patterns of narration in a wide range of novels by women of England, France, and the United States from the 1740s to the present. She sheds light on the history of "voice" as a narrative strategy and as a means of attaining social power. She considers the dynamics in personal voice in authors such as Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jamaica Kincaid. In writers who attempt a "communal voice"--including Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Gaskell, Joan Chase, and Monique Wittig--she finds innovative strategies that challenge the conventions of Western narrative.
Latina Lesbian Writers and Artists by
Explore a little-known side of the lesbian artistic world! With this book, you'll explore the work of the most significant contemporary Latina lesbian writers, artists, and performers in the United States, Latin America, and Spain. This book presents and analyzes literature, art, and poetry by women who, despite markedly different backgrounds and experiences, are all strongly influenced by the concept of lesbian identity. Latina Lesbian Writers and Artists begins with an essential A-to-Z overview of modern Latina lesbian authors and performers. From Cuban writer Magaly Alabau to literary critic Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, you'll learn who these women are, where they're from, and what they've chosen as the focus of their work. The rest of the book is structured to give you a look at the work Latina lesbians in the United States and then moves geographically outward, first to Latin America, then to Spain. "Tortilleras on the Prairie: Latina Lesbians Writing the Midwest" provides a unique look at a much-neglected component of Latina lesbian writing--that of the Latinas living far from the East and West Coast hubs of both Latino and queer cultures, exploring Latina lesbian literary production in places like Kansas and Nebraska. "The Role of Carmelita Tropicana in the Performance Art of Alina Troyano," appraises the imaginative, hilarious, and insightful work of Cuban-American performance artist Alina Troyano (better known by her stage name, Carmelita Tropicana), examining the strategies she used (code switching, the breaking of heterosexist norms, the development of alter-egos, and more) to create a hybrid identity as an artist and performer. "Moving La Frontera Toward a Genuine Radical Democracy in Gloria Anzaldúa's Work" shows us how Anzaldúa's pivotal work Borderlands has revolutionized academic perceptions of the border and of identity in Latin American/U.S. Latino literature. You'll also find passionate poetry created by Latina lesbians. "Como Sabes, Depresión" is a fragment of a passionate bilingual poem written by an English-speaking poet enamored of the Spanish language, and "To Sor Juana" is a poem dedicated to the seventeenth century poet and nun who has become an icon among Latina lesbians. "Lesbianism and Caricature in Griselda Gambaro's Lo impenetrable" shows how lesbian characters and themes in the works of this Argentine novelist are used to satirize and undermine the perverse social values of patriarchal dictatorship. "The (In)visible Lesbian: The Contradictory Representations of Female Homoeroticism in Contemporary Spain" introduces us to some of Spain's lesbian authors and communicates the difficulties lesbian writers in that country and around the world have had in finding a receptive audience.
Norton Anthology of Literature by Women by
Chronicles both the evolution in and the revolutions in women's literature and women's images of women in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Africa, and other English-speaking regions. Includes works by over 150 authors, as well as analysis and biographical information
Oshun's Daughters by
Finalist for the 2015 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions presented by the Journal of Africana Religions Oshun's Daughters examines representations of African diasporic religions from novels and poems written by women in the United States, the Spanish Caribbean, and Brazil. In spite of differences in age, language, and nationality, these women writers all turn to variations of traditional Yoruba religion (Santería/Regla de Ocha and Candomblé) as a source of inspiration for creating portraits of womanhood. Within these religious systems, binaries that dominate European thought--man/woman, mind/body, light/dark, good/evil--do not function in the same way, as the emphasis is not on extremes but on balancing or reconciling these radical differences. Involvement with these African diasporic religions thus provides alternative models of womanhood that differ substantially from those found in dominant Western patriarchal culture, namely, that of virgin, asexual wife/mother, and whore. Instead we find images of the sexual woman, who enjoys her body without any sense of shame; the mother, who nurtures her children without sacrificing herself; and the warrior woman, who actively resists demands that she conform to one-dimensional stereotypes of womanhood.
The Other Side of the Story by
According to Molly Hite, a number of influential contemporary women novelists--notably Jean Rhys, Doris Lessing, Alice Walker, and Margaret Atwood--attempt innovations in narrative form that are more radical in their implications than the dominant modes of fictional experimentation characterized as postmodernist. In The Other Side of the Story, Hite makes the point that these innovations, which distinguish the genre she calls contemporary feminist narrative, are more radical precisely because their context is the critique of a culture and a literary tradition apprehended as profoundly masculinist.
Rereading Women by
"We think back through our mothers if we are women," wrote Virginia Woolf. In this groundbreaking series of essays, Sandra M. Gilbert explores how our literary mothers have influenced us in our writing and in life. She considers the effects of these literary mothers by examining her own history and the work of such luminaries as Charlotte Bront?, Emily Dickinson, and Sylvia Plath. In the course of the book, she charts her own development as a feminist, demonstrates ways of understanding the dynamics of gender and genre, and traces the redefinitions of maternity reflected in texts by authors such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot. Throughout, Gilbert asks major questions about feminism in the twentieth century: Why and how did its ideas become so necessary to women in the sixties and seventies? What have those feminist concepts come to mean in the new century? And above all, how have our intellectual mothers shaped our thoughts today?