The feminine "no!"
Subtitle: psychoanalysis and the new canon
By: Todd McGowan.
Series: SUNY series in psychoanalysis and culture
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935; Chopin, Kate, 1851-1904; Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 1858-1932; Hurston, Zora Neale; American fiction -- History and criticism; Psychological fiction, American -- History and criticism; Psychoanalysis and literature -- United States; Feminism and literature -- United States; Feminist fiction, American -- History and criticism; Canon (Literature)
Description: "The Feminine "No!" sheds new light on the recent culture wars and debates about changes to the literary canon. Todd McGowan argues that the dynamics of canon change, rather than being the isolated concern of literary critics, actually offer concrete insights into the source of social change. Through a deployment of psychoanalytic theory, McGowan conceives the rediscovery and subsequent canonization of previously forgotten literary works as recoveries of past traumas.

As such, these rediscoveries call into question and disrupt not only the canon itself, but also the mechanisms of ideology, precisely because trauma is shown to be the key to radical social change. The book focuses on four of the most prominent rediscoveries in the canon of American literature. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper," Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition, and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-140) and index.