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The book analyzes the growth in British women's published works about India before 1857 and uses it as the basis for an examination of various aspects of their role in India. The corpus of the work comprises some 80 authors, many of the texts were previously unknown, and very few had been subjected to academic study. They extend far beyond travel writing and the work of memsahibs, which have so far been the main focus of interest, to include other groups, notably missionaries, and other genres such as fiction, poetry, drama, advice manuals, educational material, history, and translations. ... Read more

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In Lost Saints Tricia Lootens argues that parallels betwee literary and religious canons are far deeper than has yet been realized. She presents the ideological underpinnings of Victorian literary canonization and the general processes by which it occurred and discloses the unacknowledged traces of canonization at work today. Literary legends have accorded canonicity to women writers such as Felicia Hemans, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Christina Rossetti, she contends, but often at the cost of discounting their claims as serious poets.

Through case studies of the canonization of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti, Lootens demonstrates how nineteenth-century literary legends simultaneously glorified women poets and opened the way for critical neglect of their work. The author draws on a wide range of sources: histories of literature, religion, and art; medieval studies and folklore; and nineteenth-century poetry, essays, conduct books, textbooks, and novels.

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A must read
Anyone interested in Victorian literature or interpretations of writings during the Victorian era should read this excellent commentary.Also an example of feminist criticism at its best. ... Read more

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"Confessions is an important read for any person with a learning disability, or for anyone who loves that person and seeks to understand." ... Read more

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The memoir of a writer with social learning disabilities
Dale Carlson captures wih ferocity the dilemmas experienced by people who have right hemisphere learning disabilities in her CONFESSIONS OF A BRAIN-IMPAIRED WRITER. She exposes the most intimate details of her lifeand loves...her gift with words demonstrates with stark realism how peoplewith such social learning disabilities compensate for struggles tonegotiate and manage relationships to become a wife, lover, prize-winningauthor.She is gifted and disabled. -- Dr. Kathleen Laundy, Psy.D., MSW,Yale School of Medicine ... Read more

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With few exceptions, representations of Renaissance women were created by men. The Spanish saint, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who chose to represent herself, was one of those exceptions. What prompted her to write Book of Her Life, Interior Castle, and other works? What does the self-portrait of this sixteenth-century nun, mystic, and founder of convents reveal about its author, the church, state, and role of women?
St. Teresa of Avila, an innovative analysis of Teresa's autobiographical writings, explores these and many other questions. Bringing to bear a knowledge of Inquisition studies, theory of autobiography, scriptural hermeneutics, and hagiography, Carole Slade defines Teresa's writings as a project of self-interpretation undertaken mainly as the result of the perceived, later realized, threat of an accusation of heresy. Being female and of paternal Jewish ancestry, Teresa was vulnerable to such a charge.
Teresa's writing project presented her with serious difficulties. Judicial confession, her prescribed genre, presumed the writer's guilt, while the subordinate female script precluded a defense against the suspicion that her mystical experiences came from the devil. Through careful textual analysis, Slade demonstrates that Teresa exploited the nuances of numerous genres--hagiography, New World chronicle, mystical theological treatise, and early novel--to create an innocent textual persona and depict herself in heroic terms.
A signal contribution to our understanding of Teresa's rhetorical and literary talent and life circumstances, this book will engage readers across a broad range of disciplines. ... Read more

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Erudite,but hardly readable.
It is not clear as to what audience Ms.Slade was addressing in writimg her study of St. Teresa of Avila, certainly not the general reader looking for insights into the personality and life of Teresa de Jesus. Readability apparently was not a prerequisite. The text is hardly free flowing, most of the writing indeed is quite tortuous. Perhaps the volume can be appreciated by an exegete. ... Read more

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Biography of the aunt and niece who wrote together under the pseudonym of Michael Field. ... Read more

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Much, much more than just lesbian literature
Michael Field was the psuedyonm used by two women to write poetry, plays, prose, and keep a detailed journal of their lives.It is a remarkable story by all accounts.Their poetry has recently, in the past 10 years or so, been re-discovered and places them in the same category as many of the Great Victorian Poets, i.e., Wilde, Swinburne, Rossetti, and others.To label them simply by the title of lesbian literature limits 2 women whose works are some of the best produced during their time period.What Emma Donoghue does is tell Elizabeth Bradley and Edith Cooper's story simply and easily.After reading her book, I was so interested in these 2 women I spent days, weeks and even months searching down more information on them.Donoghue brings them to us in a moving and unexpected way. This book is a joy to read whether you are interested in Victorian literature, Lesbian literature, or simply human interest stories.I highly recommend this book as an introduction to 2 wonderful and creative writers.

Victorian Lesbians
This is an excellent introductory biography of Michael Field.There is not much written about these two remarkable women writing under a pseudonym in the late-Victorian period, but this book broadly covers all of the bases.The major negative from a scholarly point of view is that nothing is foot or endnoted, making discovering exactly where Donoghue came up with certain information something of a guessing game.Still, this book is an excellent, easy, interesting, and detailed read.

Who Was Michael Field?
This is a good short introductory biography about two wealthy spinsterish Victorian women, an aunt and her niece, who were lovers and lived together writing poetry *together* under a single pseudonym. Their poetry was highly acclaimed in their day and published under the masculine pseudonym "Michael Field". Unfortunately, this eccentric pair and their writings are no longer remembered today and little has been known about them until this book was published, bringing to light rare information culled from unpublished journals and letters. This is the story of two unusual and extraordinary artists who did everything together, including write with each other by day and sleep with each other by night. They had likeable and unlikeable sides to their perosnality and not all of their views and attitudes would be acceptable in today's more liberal times. But they proved, above all, that they were human, and their talent deserves a second glance, a second chance.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

A delightful slice of subversive lesbian history
Michael Field was a successful, well-regarded poet and playright in Victorian England... until critics discovered that "Michael Field" was a pseudonym used by not one, but TWO women writingcollaboratively.What even the suddenly-lukewarm critics didn't appreciate- not only were "the Michaels" (as they were known to friends)aunt and niece, but they were also lovers and partners in an extraordinaypersonal and artistic life.They wrote eleven volumes of poetry and thirtyhistorical tragedies, but perhaps their most fascinating work was the diarythat the two women shared for a quarter of a century. Novelist EmmaDonaghue has done a marvelous bit of literary biographical research in thisrevealing look at the lives, loves, and eccentricities of Katherine Bradley(1846-1914) and her niece Edith Cooper (1862-1913). ... Read more

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A literary exploration of the friendship between Noël Coward and Radclyffe Hall, this book sheds light on the relationship between gay men and lesbian women in the first half of 20th century Europe.Amazon.com Review
In her landmark study, The Apparitional Lesbian:Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture, Terry Castle calledon feminist and lesbian historians to "focus on presence insteadof absence, plenitude instead of scarcity." Her binary portraitof Noel Cowardand RadclyffeHall traces the friendship and compares the public perceptions ofthese two homosexual icons of the 1930s. Castle suggests that thesetwo very different writers influenced each other's work in surprisingways. The homosexual playwright, Jonathan Brockett, who appears inHall's lesbian classic The Well ofLoneliness, bears a striking resemblance to Coward. The blithespirit that hovers over Coward's play of the same name may have hadits genesis in Hall's ideas and writings about the supernatural. Thiswell illustrated book also shows that Hall and Coward shared a fashionsense. ... Read more

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In Into Print Leah Chang explores how market tensions, the intellectual and financial interests of printers, editors, and writers, the material features of printed volumes, as well as the content of the text helped shape the idea of female authorship in sixteenth and early seventeenth-century France.Focusing on how the female author's gender, authority, and appeal are crafted in the process of producing the material volume, Chang shows how books purportedly written by women are vital to the study of early modern ideas about gender and authorship, whether or not women actually wrote the texts.Distinguishing the female author as a figure within the printed book from the historical writer who composes the text, Chang rethinks the significance of female authorship in early modern France and shows how female authors are as much the creation of book production as are the volumes published in their names. ... Read more

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A fantastic collection of essays, autobiographical narratives,and performance pieces, including updated versions of earliergroundbreaking material with provocative new work by the lifelongfeminist activist, controversial sex radical, and Southern expatriatewriter with an attitude who brought us Bastard Out of Carolina, Trash,and The Women Who Hate Me.Funny, passionate, and compelling prose onwhat it means to be queer and happy about it in a world that is stillarguing about what it means to be queer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Thought provoking sociological examination
I read skin for a sociology class focusing on women's issues and this one is quality.

Allison really makes you think about how race, sex, and class relate and are interwoven together. If you're looking for a book to help you on your journey toward empowerment take a look.

Powerful and not to be missed

Noted as "extraordinary" by the author Tee A. Corinne in her book `Courting Pleasure' and as `...exquisite, memorable erotic work...".

This was the most intense reading I have done in a long time.This should be recommended reading in all colleges and universities.

Tremendous titles from the author are - Bastard Out of Carolina, Trash, and The Women Who Hate Me.More information can be found at the author's web page dorothyallison dot net

From the back of the book - A compelling collection of essays, autobiographical narratives, and performance pieces combines updated versions of earlier groundbreaking material with provocative new work.The author probes her experience of being a lifelong feminist activist, controversial sex radical, and a Southern expatriate writer with an attitude.. With humor, passion and enormous conviction, she addresses what it means to be queer and happy about it in a world that is still arguing about what it means to be queer.

Fabulous!
"Skin" is a book of essays by the amazingly talented writer and activist, Dorothy Allison. I remember reading [...] Out of Carolina many years ago and thinking I might not get through it because of its gruesome and hideous portrayal of a poverty-stricken, incestuous family living in the South. Turns out that book was Allison's fictionalized account of her childhood. Skin, however, is a finely crafted series of essays with titles ranging from "Gun Crazy" to "The Theory and Practice of the Strap-on Dildo" to "Believing in Literature". She likes to talk about everything people aren't supposed to talk about, including masturbating to science fiction novels, the pain of catching a venereal disease from her stepfather when she was a child (a disease that went untreated, rendering her sterile), the thrill of S & M, butch/femme strap-on sex, and much more just as juicy. Allison's style is fearlessly intimate and unashamed. Her long struggle to escape poverty and find a voice is evident in every page, and in every page her voice is beautiful, loud, and resiliant.

Essays on class, racism, sexuality, and literature
The extraordinary Dorothy Allison can write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essays. Skin is her contribution to the essay genre, a collection of two dozen bits of astute rambling across a crazy quilt of subjects stitched together by the fierce honesty her readers have come to expect from all of her writing. Coming from a poor white trash family in South Carolina, she traveled beyond her origins thanks to a rampant intelligence that nothing could dull. A feminist before the word was invented, Allison is also a proud card-carrying lesbian, a writer, mentor, teacher, lecturer, and a woman who is always generous to other writers. Skin deals more explicitly and in greater depth with erotica and sexuality than her other works, so readers would do well to be forewarned. But if you're a Dorothy Allison fan, this is NOT a book to be missed.

A book about SEX!
An opportunity to get thinking about a few "difficult" subjects, while enjoying a few refreshing lines of thought as well as a no-nonense yet witty style.Being a woman, gay or poor not a requisite, although itmight help. If you're neither of the three, buy the book anyway, you mightlearn something (I did). ... Read more

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An anthology of Victorian women's writings on Africa. It offers an overview of the roles of women as scholars, missionaries, adventurers, spies and journalists, and gathers examples of their ground-breaking scholarly treatises, popular accounts, letters, articles and adventure stories. ... Read more

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This fascinating book examines what sixteen radical and conservative, famous and notorious British women wrote about their sex in the 1790s. In doing so it offers the most comprehensive survey of what they thought about their fellow women with regard to love, sexual desire and marriage; their domestic roles and their engagement in the 'public' sphere; and issues of gender and female abilities including sensibility and genius. Texts studied include 'feminist' and conduct material by Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Catharine Macaulay, Priscilla Wakefield, Maria Edgeworth and Hannah More; historical writings by Helen Maria Williams, and prose fiction by Mary Robinson, Anne Radcliffe, Elizabeth Inchbald, Eliza Fenwick, Charlotte Smith, Jane West, Elizabeth Hamilton and Frances Burney. How contemporary reviewers divided these writers into 'unsex'd' and 'proper' is investigated, as is the issue of whether they attempted to exclude women from certain kinds of writing. The book reveals the depth of female complaint but contends that women did not passively submit.Conservative and radicals alike sought to extend their sphere of activity, to reform men, challenge gender stereotypes and propose that a woman should be a self for herself and her God rather than for her husband. This book will be indispensable to academics and students of history, literature, gender and the history of social and political thought. ... Read more

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Attempts to understand recent changes in the canon of American literature through the aid of psychoanalytic theory. ... Read more

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Intelligible Marriage ofPsychoanalysis and Politics
Todd McGowan has made a monumental contribution to our understanding of the canon controversies, and done it with an admirable and astonishingbrevity and focus. The readings of particular authors, contextualized with respect to their moment of entry into the canon of literary studies (and with respect to a number of other interesting and provocative issues), are a model of what cultural studies can be, when undertakenby someone with an authentic concern for how literature functions vis-a-vis the social (symbolic) order . What should especiallynot be overlooked,in my opinion,is McGowan's immeasurable --and, again, marvellously condensed-- contribution to our understanding of the dilemmabetween essentialistic, rational, enlightenment-based notions of the self versus postmodern dissolution of the self into what are often celebrated by theorists (of all stripes)todayunder the banner of "multiple subject positions," or some related notion of "discursively-determined subjectivity" (see the last chapter for a terse tour-de-force critique of this dilemma).It must be stressed thatMcGowan's deployment of Lacanian concepts is not obscured by excessive jargon or mathematical abstractions.Henot only wields such terminology with expertise, but makes psychoanalytic concepts intelligible and politically relevant.I highly recommend this excellent book. ... Read more

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A poetic memoir of the writer's pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, Rose, this is a magical journal of joy, pain, and the hope of parenthood.

From Carole Maso, one of our most daring experimentalist writers, comes this intimate and seductive book: a working journal of her pregnancy. We have come to rely on Maso to say that which is true as well as unexpected. The Room Lit by Roses delineates, with searing and poetic honesty, the months leading up to the birth of Rose, the long-awaited daughter born to Maso and her partner, Helen.

During the early months, when Maso is beset by the worry that the child will be lost, her journal becomes a meditation on art and life. Maso becomes more confident as the baby reaches the second trimester: "We are flying, as the finishing touches are applied. The eyelids close over the eyes by the ninth week and temporarily seal them like a kitten's. They will remain closed until the sixth month. You travel in darkness for now, little one. I'm right here."Amazon.com Review
Carole Maso, an experimental novelist, brings all her imaginative gifts to bear on this fragmented but sparkling journal of her pregnancy and the first weeks after her daughter Rose's birth. Although she was over 40 when she decided to have a child, she and her partner Helen had prayed for one at the Church of St. Clare in Assisi, and in fact all across Tuscany and Umbria, as if the churches of Manhattan were further from God, or it was harder to hear prayer over the traffic. When the sign of a miracle arrives--in the form of a home pregnancy test--Maso is ready to meet it with words. Although she is a far more lyrical writer than Anne Lamott, there is a similar urge in them to tell the truth about themselves, even when it is less than flattering, and not to let a fear of sentimentality choke the expression of what are, after all, some of the most profound emotions a woman will ever feel.

Not for nothing does Maso quote the brave and ferocious Virginia Woolf several times in this volume. Moving between the "glow" of pregnancy--a sense that for the first time she is truly alive, and not just advancing toward death--and the fears and depression that her ruminations have brought on, Maso tracks the beginnings of another life, one that will be connected to her, through her body, until its own end. Any new mother of a literary bent will relish Maso's observations, from the tart to the sublime: "Doubt very much I am going to wear a scarf around my head during labor. The last thing I want is to look like David Foster Wallace, and, after the birth, "I'll start a baby book soon. For remembrance. Baby and book--the two most beautiful words in the language." She's forgotten the third, though: mother. --Regina Marler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Feedback for Mirage Best Buy and ShortReview
I mistakenly deleted the info for feedback to the seller. So I am placing it here.

The book arrived in nearly perfect condition, and a day before the earliest scheduled delivery! I could not be more pleased, and use Mirage Best Buys for future orders. :) Sincerely, Rebecca Woods, Portland, OR

The book is beautifully written, and shares with the reader some of the emotion and considerations one has when becoming a mother. I'm a fan of Maso already, but appreciate this thoughtful portrayal of the conflicting emotions and sensations of pregnancy. When she speaks of the wonder of seeing her daughter for the first time, it reminds us all how precious and awe worthy that moment truly is.

not for everyone
This book did not meet my expectactions- I found it very pretentious and hard to tolerate.

Beauty in the enigma of self.
To read Carole Maso is to endure and survive much- passion, love, loss, anguish, doubt, and pain. Readers will bear witness to one of the most marvelous, daring writers of our age. This memoir is a celebration of the universe's most profound mystery- the brewing of a human life and the phenomenal vessel that brings forth this magnificence with ferocity and might. Maso's words dance, pulverize, and enlighten. A bold mixture of sweet delirium and mind-shaking realities. Reads like a prayer.

Love is all we know of love
What does a journal of a writer's pregnancy have for a male reader? Plenty, at least for this one. I read the book in one evening and came away thinking how lucky the child Rose is to have this beautiful letter from her mother. Portions of this book made me sad. Maso writes: "I think of my mother often these days. That she did not have a mother to talk with, to console her, to reassure her as she went through her pregnancies." I remembered my own mother whose mother died when my mother was twelve, just entering puberty. I cannot fathom her loss. But I do understand all too well Maso's remembered grief over the deathof her beloved friend Gary from AIDS. "That I had walked at 4 a.m., most terrible hour of the day, of the night, in utter fear and dread, in utter sorrow, scarcely breathing, to kiss my dead friend good-bye. . . The worst possible thing had already happened, so what else was there to fear?" Too many of us said too many unnecessary goodbyes in that first onslaught of AIDS deaths in part because of a government that did not care about those of us who were different. More Maso: "Why shouldn't the old models, which are working with less and less success, be challenged--the world reimagined? Heterosexual privilege and power--and all its attendant rigmarole. Such a system, if it were to be taken seriously, would have precluded me from having a child. Luckily I have never taken it even the least bit seriously. But I have been outside of everything from the beginning--except the system of love." Passages like this one make this book wonderful. Besides the sorrow, there is so much joy, so much hope, so much love here.

As always, Maso paints with words. She has created a beautiful book, fromthe title to the last sentence with the metaphor of Rose pointing a finger "upward toward the heavens, like the infant Christ, in the renaissance paintings." This book will not disappoint you.

Love is all we know of love
What does a journal of a writer's pregnancy have for a male reader? Plenty, at least for this one. I read the book in one evening and came away thinking how lucky the child Rose is to have this beautiful letter from her mother. Portions of this book made me sad. Maso writes: "I think of my mother often these days. That she did not have a mother to talk with, to console her, to reassure her as she went through her pregnancies." I remembered my own mother whose mother died when my mother was twelve, just entering puberty. I cannot fathom her loss. But I do understand all too well Maso's remembered grief over the death of her beloved friend Gary from AIDS. "That I had walked at 4 a.m., most terrible hour of the day, of the night, in utter fear and dread, in utter sorrow, scarcely breathing, to kiss my dead friend good-bye. . . The worst possible thing had already happened, so what else was there to fear?" Too many of us said too many unnecessary good-byes in that first onslaught of AIDS deaths in part because of a government that did not care about those of us who were different. More Maso: "Why shouldn't the old models, which are working with less and less success, be challenged--the world reimagined? Heterosexual privilege and power--and all its attendant rigmarole. Such a system, if it were to be taken seriously, would have precluded me from having a child. Luckily I have never taken it even the least bit seriously. But I have been outside of everything from the beginning--except the system of love." Passages like this one make this book wonderful. Besides the sorrow, there is so much joy, so much hope, so much honesty, so much love here.

As always, Maso paints with words. She has created a beautiful book, from its title to the last sentence with the image of Rose's pointing a finger "upward toward the heavens, like the infant Christ, in the renaissance paintings." This book will not disappoint you. ... Read more

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This study demonstrates that African-American women view cultural products in a unique way. Interviews describe the specific reactions of various women to films and literature, such as Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple" and Julie Dash's independent film "Daughters of the Dust". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good initial book on black female viewership
Bobo is a well-respected African-American woman in film studies.In this book, she notes the severe lack of studies out there on black female viewing habits and then presents this book as her intervention against this paucity.The book can be broken down into to parts.In one part, Bobo summarizes the feelings of a dozen black women as they watch Color Purple and Daughters of the Dust, two nominally womanist movies.In the second part, Bobo includes her own essays on why Steven Spielberg's movie betrays Walker's text, etc.This book may feel essentialist and highly unscientific to some readers.However, it was good for what it proposed.I think it would be a nice edition to any collection of texts on women of color or womanism. ... Read more

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The quilt has always been a significant symbol of women’s craft and ingenuity. With the goal of making a product of both beauty and function, quilting has given women a practical outlet for their creativity, a way to preserve special memories,and a sense of community that comes with sharing and cooperation. Using the quilt as a theme for women’s literature, editor Cecilia Macheski has assembled twenty-eight stories, plays, and poems by such authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Bobbie Ann Mason, Sharyn McCrumb, Marge Piercy, Alice Walker, and many others that explore how quilting reflects women’s ways of seeing, remembering, knowing, learning, and expressing. Representing over 150 years of fiction, Quilt Stories brings together a conscious and continuous women’s literary tradition in America. ... Read more

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A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF WOMEN WRITERS

This unique collection features the work of women writers - short stories, plays and poems - that have to do with quilting.Written from 184 to the present day, the authors are primarily American women.

The narrator in "Aunt Jane of Kentucky" looks at a huge pile of quilts that have been brought out to air, and comments, "There seemed to be every pattern that the ingenuity of women could devise and the industry of women could put together."

As noted in the introduction, this also describes the pieces presented in Quilt Stories.

Divided into five sections, over 25 works are presented.The first, "Memory Blocks" deals with remembrance and meaning.Others focus on community and courtship, struggle and change, and mystery and murder.The final segment, "Old Maid's Ramble" has age and wisdom as its theme.

Among the authors represented are Bobbie Ann Mason, Dorothy Canfield, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Marge Piercy, and Joyce Carol Oates.

Quilt Stories is an important chronicle of women's literary history achievements and history.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

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Great Teaching Tool
Teaching the Selected Works of Mildred D. Taylor (Young Adult Novels in the Classroom) is an excellent tool for using Mildred Taylor books in your classroom.I used 5 different books to do literature circles in my social studies class and this book helped tremendously in preparing questions and activities.Mildred Taylor books are an excellent way to teach about racial injustice, and using Teaching the Selected Works of Mildred D. Taylor (Young Adult Novels in the Classroom) made the unit even more of a success. Excellent, ready to use, teacher friendly resource! ... Read more