Deferrals of Domain: Contemporary Women Novelists and the State (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780312228118)

Contemporary female novelists tend to portray the relationship between women and the state as profoundly negative, in contrast to various constructions in current feminist theory. Martine Watson Brownley analyzes novels by Margaret Atwood, Paule Marshall, Nadine Gordimer, and Margaret Drabble to explore the significance of this disparity. The book uses literary analysis to highlight elements of state power that many feminist theorists currently occlude, ranging from women's still minimal access to state politics to the terrifying violence exercised by modern states. At the same time, however, feminist theory clarifies major elements in many contemporary women's lives about which the novels are ambivalent or misleading, such as romantic love and the role of sexuality in state politics. Deferrals of Domain fills a double gap, both authorial and topical, in current critical treatments of women writers and will be of interest to both literary and women's studies scholars.

Author: Na Na
ISBN-10: 0312228112
ISBN-13: 9780312228118
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2000
Pages: 277
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.55h x 5.80w x 1.01d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2000 pg. 327
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2000 pg. 195