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Women's Movement
Escape as Transgression in North American Feminist Fiction
Series: - Costerus New Series Online, Volume: 128
- Costerus New Series, Volume: 128
Author:
Womenâs Movement critically explores the transgressive potential of feminist escape narratives and argues that they are, almost by definition, radically different from paradigmatic male escape narratives. While definitions of escape are necessarily broad, they have too often excluded the ambiguous escape â the escape most closely associated with the female. Indeed, feminist escape narratives often resist a happy ending, and Womenâs Movement argues that these narrative closures reflect the changing face of feminism, as it sheds its old certainties, is faced with a monumental âbacklashâ and is refigured as the potentially less threatening âpostfeminismâ.
Resisting the automatic association of âescapeâ with âescapist,â Womenâs Movement analyzes male adventure and quest narratives, including Moby-Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Blood Meridian, and Deliverance, before turning to a range of feminist texts. While being the first book to give critical attention to some postfeminist novels, Womenâs Movement more often acts as a channel for offering different ways of approaching familiar feminist texts, including, among others, Marian Engelâs Bear, Atwoodâs Surfacing and The Handmaidâs Tale, Joan Barfootâs Gaining Ground and Dancing in the Dark, Anne Tylerâs Earthly Possessions and Ladder of Years, Marilynne Robinsonâs Housekeeping, Erica Jongâs Fear of Flying and Margaret Laurenceâs The Diviners.
Resisting the automatic association of âescapeâ with âescapist,â Womenâs Movement analyzes male adventure and quest narratives, including Moby-Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Blood Meridian, and Deliverance, before turning to a range of feminist texts. While being the first book to give critical attention to some postfeminist novels, Womenâs Movement more often acts as a channel for offering different ways of approaching familiar feminist texts, including, among others, Marian Engelâs Bear, Atwoodâs Surfacing and The Handmaidâs Tale, Joan Barfootâs Gaining Ground and Dancing in the Dark, Anne Tylerâs Earthly Possessions and Ladder of Years, Marilynne Robinsonâs Housekeeping, Erica Jongâs Fear of Flying and Margaret Laurenceâs The Diviners.
"Womenâs Movement is a talented work, a real contribution that proves its point incontestablyâ¦" - in: Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies 8.2.2002
"Womenâs Movement is a valuable contribution to the on-going debates surrounding contemporary North American feminist fiction." - in: Atlantis 26.1 (2001)
"stimulating text [â¦]" - in: American Studies, Vol. 36 (2002), pp. 538-539
"⦠a remarkably insightful analysis of escape in literature. [â¦] ⦠an invaluable addition to the study of Canadian and American culture." - in: British Journal of Canadian Studies, 14.2
"Womenâs Movement is a valuable contribution to the on-going debates surrounding contemporary North American feminist fiction." - in: Atlantis 26.1 (2001)
"stimulating text [â¦]" - in: American Studies, Vol. 36 (2002), pp. 538-539
"⦠a remarkably insightful analysis of escape in literature. [â¦] ⦠an invaluable addition to the study of Canadian and American culture." - in: British Journal of Canadian Studies, 14.2
Introduction: Transiency and Transgression: Feminist Literary Escape. Part One: (En)Gendering Escape. Chapter One: Escapist Literature and the Literature of Escape. Chapter Two: The Literature of Adventure. Chapter Three: The Literature of Quest Part Two: Charting the Disappeared. Chapter Four: Breaking the Ties that Bind: Escaping the 1970s. Chapter Five: From Hoboes to Handmaids: Divergent Impulses in the 1980s. Chapter Six: Patriarchy and Postfeminism: Refiguring the Ties that Bind.