The Feminist Companion to Literature in English
Woman Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present
Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy
Out of Print
Women writers have long been slighted in standard bibliographies, directories, biographical dictionaries, and literary histories. This unique volume—the first fully international biographical and topical guide to women writers—redresses a long-standing inequity. The book is the result of extensive new research into original sources by editors Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy and by some fifty specialist contributors. Serving as consulting editors in the later stages were Barbara Christian, Margaret Ferguson, Margaret Homans and Elaine Showalter.
The volume features female literary figures from Britain, Ireland, and North America, as well as from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It includes every type of woman author-from poets, novelists, and dramatists to diarists, translators, autobiographers, and other nonfiction writers. Some are already part of the established canon of literature and have been the subjects of many works of criticism, while others have been victims of repeated condescension and inaccuracy or are almost entirely unknown. Most of the entries are biographical, and each of these not only outlines the life and work of its subject but also sets her in the context of her time and makes clear her importance or interest today. These biographical entries comment on and sometimes quote the author’s writings, both published and unpublished, and selected criticism is cited where it exists. In addition to the biographies, there are also key topic entries dealing with important genres and movements such as autobiography, feminist theory and film criticism, and slave narratives. All entries are alphabetically arranged, and a separate list of entry headings and cross-references enables readers to pursue particular interests.
The book will be an essential reference work not only for scholars involved in the study of women’s literature in English but also for those working in feminist criticism, history, and literary studies generally.
Publication Date: October 24, 1990