Literature and Gender combines an introduction to and an anthology of literary texts which powerfully demonstrate the relevance of gender issues to the study of literature. The volume covers all three major literary genres - poetry, fiction and drama - and closely examines a wide range of themes, including:



feminity versus creativity in women's lives and writing
the construction of female characters
autobiography and fiction
the gendering of language
the interaction of race, class and gender within writing, reading and interpretation.

Literature and Gender is also a superb resource of primary texts, and includes writing by:



Sappho
Emily Dickinson
Sylvia Plath
Tennyson
Elizabeth Bishop
Louisa May Alcott
Virginia Woolf
Jamaica Kincaid
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Susan Glaspell

Also reproduced are essential essays by, amoung others, Maya Angelou, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Toni Morrison, Elaine Showalter, and Alice Walker. No other book on this subject provides an anthology, introduction and critical reader in one volume. Literature and Gender is the ideal guide for any student new to this field.