Feminism and its fictions
Subtitle: the consciousness-raising novel and the women's liberation movement
By: Lisa Maria Hogeland.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
Subjects: American fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism; Feminism and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century; American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Feminist fiction, American -- History and criticism; Interpersonal relations in literature; Group identity in literature
Description: In Feminism and Its Fictions, Lisa Maria Hogeland argues that women's and feminist fiction of the 1970s was dominated by a new kind of novel whose content and form were shaped by the practice of consciousness raising.

She contends that consciousness-raising novels both reflected and furthered the Women's Liberation Movement's analyses of sexuality, gender, race, and political responsibility and that through their narrative structure the novels actually engaged in consciousness raising with their readers.

Using a broad range of fiction - including works by Erica Jong, Marilyn French, Marge Piercy, Alix Kates Shulman, Alison Lurie, Joanna Russ, and Joan Didion - Hogeland explores the ways in which consciousness-raising novels addressed some of the most important questions raised by second-wave feminism: How can social change be brought about through changes in individual consciousness? How can sexuality be simultaneously a site of women's freedom and their oppression?

How were feminist ideas constructed from ideas about race?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-190) and index.