Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature

785 Pages·2006·3.45 MB·English

Encyclopedia of
Feminist Literature
MARY ELLEN SNODGRASS
Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature
Copyright © 2006 by Mary Ellen Snodgrass
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen.
Encyclopedia of feminist literature / Mary Ellen Snodgrass.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-6040-1 (acid-free paper)
1. Women authors—Bio-bibliography. 2. Women and literature—
Encyclopedias. 3. Feminist literature—Encyclopedias. 4. Feminism and
literature—Encyclopedias. 5. Feminism in literature—Encyclopedias.
6. Women in literature—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
PN471.S58 2006
809′.89287′03—dc22
2005015204
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
For a feminist sister, Dr. Carol Blessing
Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are.
Anne Bradstreet
“The Prologue” (1650)
Woman is learning for herself that not self-sacrifice, but self-development,
is her first duty in life; and this, not primarily for the sake of others
but that she may become fully herself.
Matilda Joslyn Gage
Woman, Church & State(1893)
C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgments vi
Preface vii
Introduction ix
A to Z Entries 1
Authors by Genre 607
Major Authors of Feminist Literature and Their Works 621
A Time Line of Major Works of Feminist Literature 649
Primary Source Bibliography 673
Secondary Source Bibliography 698
Filmography 725
Index 728
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Avis Gachet, Book Buyer
Mark Schumacher, Reference Librarian
Wonderland Books
Jackson Library, UNC-G
5008 Hickory Boulevard
Greensboro, North Carolina
Hickory, North Carolina 28601
I am grateful to Stephen Rhind-Tutt and Eileen
Susan Keller, Reference Librarian Lawrence, president and vice president, respective-
Western Piedmont Community College ly, of Alexander Street Press, Alexandria, Virginia,
Morganton, North Carolina for providing primary sources by African-American
female dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hannah Owen, Deputy Director
Hickory Public Library
Hickory, North Carolina
Wanda Rozzelle, Reference Librarian
Catawba County Library
Newton, North Carolina
vi
P
REFACE
Encyclopedia of Feminist Literatureinvites the fem- Mary, Spider Woman, Lilith, La Llorona, Eve), motifs
inist, writer, literary historian, researcher, stu- (wisewomen, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast,
dent, teacher, librarian, and reader to sample a wide courtly love), conventions (confinement, secrecy,
range of fiction and nonfiction by feminist authors. rescue motif, madness, duality, dreamscapes), and
The text, arranged alphabetically into more than issues (abortion, temperance, stereotyping, single par-
500 entries, is an easy-to-use source of information. enting, education, suffrage) contribute to an under-
Discussions of feminist themes and women’s rights standing of feminist works.
summarize the evolution of feminism. Entries cover Research materials derive from various sources,
authors, literary works, and other related topics of beginning with the guidance of feminist scholars and
interest and were included after a close examina- historians: Nina Baym, Barbara Ehrenreich, Susan
tion of the syllabi of women’s studies, literature, Faludi, Shulamith Firestone, Matilda Joslyn Gage,
and social issues classes, as well as the contents of Wendy Ho, Diane Hoeveler, Judith Halberstam,
current textbooks, supplemental reading lists, and Luce Irigaray, Elizabeth Janeway, Harriet Taylor Mill,
notable projects and seminars that have drawn Kate Millett, and Barbara Tuchman. Of particular
together teachers, students, writers, activists, and merit are the analyses of Margaret Atwood, Simone
authorities on feminist concerns. de Beauvoir, Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Carolyn
Enhancing the reader’s understanding of philo- Heilbrun, Margaret Oliphant, Adrienne Rich,
sophical and literary developments are details of Elaine Showalter, Naomi Wolf, and Virginia Woolf.
feminist theater, utopias, goddess lore, lesbian In addition to a panoply of rediscovered feminist
authors, and gynocriticism (a term describing the works and facsimile editions are an array of electron-
breakthrough in interpretation and evaluation of ic texts, including works from the University of
woman-centered works). Individual details on writ- Pennsylvania, Indiana University, Rutgers Univer-
ers (Tanith Lee, Lady Murasaki), sources (women’s sity, Duke University, Northern Illinois University,
magazines, journalism, the Feminist Press), women’s Virginia Commonwealth University, Fordham
history (slavery, witchcraft, women’s movements), University, and the University of Virginia libraries;
literary history (ecofeminism, captivity narrative, the Massachusetts History Project; the Cooper
censorship, gothic fiction), genres (letter writing, Union for the Advancement for Science and Art; a
diaries and journals), oral tradition (fairy tales, sto- compilation of speeches from Sweetbriar College;
rytelling, talk-story), feminist themes (androgyny, the Gutenberg Project; Bartleby’s Great Books
violence, aging, dynasty), titles (Gone with the Wind, Online; the e-text library from Adelaide, Australia;
The Woman’s Bible, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The the Women’s History Project; and individual
Story of an African Farm), characters (Bertha archives of works by Carrie Chapman Catt,
Rochester, Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw, Little Martha Ballard, and Victoria Woodhull. To the
Red Riding Hood, Cinderella), legends (Virgin researcher beginning a probe of feminist texts,
vii
viii Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature
invaluable electronic databases include primary texts authors alphabetically and by genre and date.
from Alexander Street Press, Other Women’s Voices, Other appendices provide an overview of cinemat-
and Academic Search Elite via EBSCOhost. ic versions of such women’s classics as Juliaand The
Rounding out Encyclopedia of Feminist Dollmaker and separate bibliographies of primary
Literature are reference guides that list titles and and secondary sources.
I
NTRODUCTION
Feminist literature is not a new phenomenon. Nawal El Saadawi and Angela Davis, the young
Evidence of women’s ability to write songs, rear adult fiction of Nancy Springer and Judy Blume,
children, and grow roses and of their skill at weav- poems by Marianne Moore and Nikki Giovanni,
ing and healing survives from early times in sculp- fables of Marie de France and Joyce Carol Oates,
ture, ritual, dance, needlework, and written texts. the philosophy of Margaret Fuller and Harriet
Obvious narrative examples include the timeless Martineau, biography by Fawn Brodie and Santha
fairy tales, fables, oral accounts, and cautionary Rama Rau, syndicated columns by Fanny Fern and
exempla that women have treasured—the stories Patricia A. Williams, the dramas of Osonye Tess
of Bluebeard, Cinderella, Spider Woman, Devi, and Onwueme and Wendy Wasserstein, one-woman
Beauty and the Beast that elders have told young performances of Anna Deavere Smith and Eve
girls to prepare them against threats to their virgin- Ensler, historical fiction of Rita Mae Brown and
ity and safety. The resilience of motifs of terror and Diana Norman, oratory by Pauline Johnson and
rescue is evident in Anne Sexton’s “Red Riding Sojourner Truth, critiques of Wendy Ho and Elaine
Hood” and “Briar Rose” and Sylvia Plath’s Showalter, diaries of Martha Ballard and Ishbel
“Bluebeard.” The resurgence of goddess lore Ross, and the letters of Mary Antin and Abigail
sparked Eavan Boland’s “The Making of an Irish Adams. The influx of recovered texts—Laurel
Goddess,” Denise Levertov’s “Song for Ishtar” and Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale,new versions of
“Goddess,” and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s reclama- Mary Chesnut’s Civil War diary, The Stories of Fanny
tion of Druidic worship in The Forest House.Diane Hurst, Lillian Schlissel’s Women’s Diaries of the
Wolkstein mined new understandings of male- Westward Journey, and the court diaries of Izumi
female passions in Inannaand The First Love Stories. Shikibu and Murasaki Shikibu—attests to a vigor-
Literary resettings resulted in feminist classics— ous search for forgotten passages of female history.
Christina Rossetti’s “The Goblin Market,” H. D.’s In addition to recovered works are evaluations of
“Helen in Egypt,” Angela Carter’s The Magic early works. Energized by Kate Millett’s Sexual
Toyshop, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s stage play The Politics and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s The
Love of the Nightingale,Paula Gunn Allen’s revital- Madwoman in the Attic, feminist analysis applies a
ized vision quest in The Woman Who Owned the woman-centered perspective on such titles as To
Shadows,and Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Talesand Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, the Little House
her redemptive fable Babette’s Feast. series, the philosophy of Simone Weil, and the writ-
For recording the spirit and viscera of female ings of Tillie Olsen and Vita Sackville-West.
life, feminist literature belongs in a world-class col- Even in androcentric milieus, written history
lection. As a main branch of the arts, it gathers a carries wisps of female attitudes and activities.
range of genres: the novels of Marguerite Before Greece’s Golden Age, Sappho described the
Yourcenar and Sahar Khalifeh, prison fiction by eager minds of the students at her female academy
ix