Changing Minds: Women and the Political Essay, 1960-2001 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780822947974)

How Five Prominent Women Writers Reshaped the Essay in the Late Twentieth Century

In Changing Minds: Women and the Political Essay, 1960-2000, Ann Jurečič documents the work of five paradigm-shifting essayists who transformed American thought about urgent political issues. Rachel Carson linked science and art to explain how pesticides threatened the Earth's ecosystems. Hannah Arendt redefined "evil" for a secular age after Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem. Susan Sontag's interest in the intersection of politics and aesthetics led her to examine the ethics of looking at photographs of suffering. Joan Didion became a political essayist when she questioned how rhetoric and sentimental narratives corrupted democratic ideals. Patricia J. Williams continues to write about living under a justice system that has attempted to neutralize race, gender, and the meaning of history. These writers reacted to the stressors of the late twentieth century and in response reshaped the essay for their own purposes in profound ways. With this volume, Jurečič begins to correct the longstanding dearth of scholarly studies on the importance of women and their political essays--works that continue to be relevant more than two decades into the twenty-first century.

Author: Ann Jurecic
ISBN-10: 0822947978
ISBN-13: 9780822947974
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Language: English
Published: 12/26/2023
Pages: 248
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.70h x 6.20w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/02/2023