Vigilante Women in Contemporary American Fiction [Paperback]

Graham-Bertolini provides the first analysis of vigilante women in contemporary American fiction. She develops a dynamic model of vigilante heroines using literary and feminist theory and applies it to important texts to broaden our understanding of how law and culture infringe upon women's rights.PART I: GREAT VENGEANCE AND FURIOUS ANGER: THE FEMALE AVENGER PART II: WOMEN WARRIORS AND WOMEN WITH WEAPONS PART III: THE WOMAN WHO SNAPS, THE WOMAN WHO KILLS PART IV: THE FEMALE BANDIT/OUTLAW

In this wide-ranging, ambitious study of American womens writing, Alison Graham-Bertolini offers accessibly written, clearly argued, and often perceptive readings of a diverse range of texts. Her analyses shed light on an important and underexamined subject: the figure of the vigilante woman in modern American literature. & this is a consistently engaging contribution to scholarship that ranges across twentieth-century American literature in stimulating and memorable ways. (Ruth?Maxey, Contemporary Women's Writing, Vol. 10 (2), July, 2016)

ALISON GRAHAM-BERTOLINI has a Ph.D. in English Literature from Louisiana State University and a Master's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.?Her writing and research focus on issues in contemporary American Literature, Ethnic Literature, and Women's Studies. She has recently published articles in the Journal of Feminist Media Studies, The Southern Quarterly, and the edited collection American Writers: Transnationalisms and Diasporas. Graham-Bertolini opens up valuable discussions about individual responses to gender oppression. She explores the power of language and symbolism; means of working towards gender quality through transformations in gender roles and identities; and the necessity of working outside existing structures (such as legal systems) as a critique of oppression inflicted by those systems. - Kristine Rabberman, Director, Programs in the Humanitils¢