Figuring the Woman Author in Contemporary Fiction [Hardcover]

If the author is 'dead', if feminism is 'post-', why does the figure of the woman author keep appearing as a central character in contemporary fiction? She is concerned with ownership but, equally, with loss; determined to enter the cultural field but also rejecting that field; looking for control but subject to duplicity; seeking power alongside desire. Drawing on a diverse range of contemporary authors - including Atwood, Byatt, Brookner, Coetzee, Lurie, LeGuin, Mich?le Roberts, Shields, Spark, Weldon, Walker - this study explores the complexity and continuing fascination of this figure.Acknowledgements Introduction: Birth, Death and Resurrection Feminism and the Death of the Author Playing the Field: Women's Access to Cultural Production Lost and Found: The Making of the Woman Author Tell Me a Story: Women Oral Narrators 'A Constant State of Tension': Academic Women Authors Finding the Right Words: Authors of Romantic Fiction Reluctant Authors Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

'One of the excellent qualities of Eagleton's book is its recapitulation of the development not only of feminist criticism but literary criticism at large during the last thirty years.' - Marion Shaw, Journal of Gender Studies

'Eagleton's analyses of the authors covered in each chapter are lively, astute and convincing; so much so that the reader will certainly be tempted to pick up the novels under scrutiny. Unlike a lot of critical writing, this is a very entertaining read.' - Laura Kirkley, Women: A Cultural Review

MARY EAGLETON is Professor in Contemporary Women's Writing at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.