The Book Places A Body Of Women S Fiction Against The Ideological Territory Of Radical Feminism With A Firm Belief In Its Social, Political And Intellectual Essentiality. The Absence Of This Specific Discourse In Women S Texts Stirs An Urge For A Different Kind Of Gender Sensitivity Than Their Limited And Undefined Approach Provides. The Book Takes Into Its View A Huge Compendium Of Women S Fiction In Hindi And In Indian English, Most Of Which Has Been Victim Of Hegemonic Biases And Overall Marginalization.

Crow (women's studies, U. of Calgary) attempts to retrieve the lost history of North American radical feminists (a group to be distinguished from mainstream feminism by their critique of the entire structure of society (in spite of anti-feminist attempts to label all feminists "radical"). She presents a collection of essays, manifestos, position papers, and newsletters drawn mainly from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Redstockings Archives, and the Barnard College Special Collections (thus limiting the material to the East Coast), covering the years 1967 to 1975. Most of the documents are organized topically under the headings lesbianism, heterosexuality, children, race, and class. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book traces the intersection of radical feminism, composition, and print culture in order to address a curious gap in feminist composition studies: the manifesto-writing, collaborative-action-taking radical feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. Long before contemporary debates over essentialism, radical feminist groups questioned both what it was to be a woman and to perform womanhood, and a key part of that questioning took the form of very public, very contentious texts by such writers and groups as Shulamith Firestone, the Redstockings, and WITCH (the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). Rhodes explores how these radical women's texts have been silenced in contemporary rhetoric and composition, and compares their work to that of contemporary online activists, finding that both point to a "network literacy" that blends ever-shifting identities with ever-changing technologies in order to take action. Ultimately, Rhodes argues, the articulation of radical feminist textuality can benefit both scholarship and classroom as it situates writers as rhetorical agents who can write, resist, and finally act within a network of discourses and identifications.

Combining biography, history, and literary theory, this work looks at three of the most significant women writers to emerge from American radicalism of the 1930s. Le Sueur, Olsen, and Herbst were influenced by the Communist movement of the time, but each also forged an independent vision of feminist socialist literary milieu. Drawing on Marxist and post-Marxist theory, and addressing the challenge of such new feminist theorists as Jean Bethke Elshtain, Roberts takes a theoretical approach that encompasses the social vision and feminist practice of the writers and places them in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. The study covers their lives from the turn of the century to the 1970s, with an emphasis on the 1930s; examines their views of the Cold War; links the three to the Progressive tradition; and analyzes their key literary works. Resources for analysis include historical and contemporary theory; excerpts from the radical press of the 1920s and 1930s; and primary materials from the writers themselves, including journals, notes, and unpublished archival materials.

The contributors to Radically Speaking show that a radical feminist analysis cuts across class, race, sexuality, region, religion and across the generations. It is essential reading for Women's Studies, sociology, cultural studies, and anyone interested in processes of social change. Thecollection reveals the global reach of radical feminism and analyze the causes and solutions to patriarchal oppression. Seventy writers discuss their ideas and practice of contemporary feminism.