M. Eagleton 
Figuring the Woman Author in Contemporary Fiction 

If the author is ‘dead’, if feminism is ‘post-‘, why does the figure of the woman author keep appearing as a central character in contemporary fiction? She is concerned with ownership but, equally, with loss; determined to enter the cultural field but also rejecting that field; looking for control but subject to duplicity; seeking power alongside desire. Drawing on a diverse range of contemporary authors – including Atwood, Byatt, Brookner, Coetzee, Lurie, Le Guin, Michèle Roberts, Shields, Spark, Weldon, Walker – this study explores the complexity and continuing fascination of this figure.

Table of Content

Acknowledgements Introduction: Birth, Death and Resurrection Feminism and the Death of the Author Playing the Field: Women’s Access to Cultural Production Lost and Found: The Making of the Woman Author Tell Me a Story: Women Oral Narrators ‘A Constant State of Tension’: Academic Women Authors Finding the Right Words: Authors of Romantic Fiction Reluctant Authors Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

About the author

MARY EAGLETON is Professor in Contemporary Women’s Writing at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.