Janet Todd 
Feminist Literary History 

In this timely book Janet Todd offers an analysis and defence of
the feminist literary history practised by Elaine Showalter and
other contemporary American literary critics. She argues that this
approach rightly links the political concerns of feminist criticism
to the uncovering of female voices embedded in history.

Todd reconstructs the development of feminist literary history
from the 1960s through to the present day, highlighting the central
themes as well as the strengths and weaknesses. She then examines
the debate between American feminist critics, on the one hand, and
feminist critics inspired by the work of French theorists such as
Kristeva, Irigaray and Cixous, on the other. She defends feminist
literary history against its critics and casts doubt on some of the
uses of psychoanalysis in feminism. Todd also considers the debate
with men and assesses the relevance of academic analyses of gender,
masculinity and homosexuality.

Feminist Literary History is a forceful and committed
work, which addresses some of the most important issues in
contemporary feminist theory and literary criticism. It will be
widely read as an introductory text by students in English
literature, modern languages, women’s studies and cultural
studies.

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Janet Todd is the author of several previous books including Feminist Literary History.