Not too long ago, literary theorists were writing about the death of the novel and the death of the author; today many are talking about the death of Theory. Theory, as the many theoretical ism's (among them postcolonialism, postmodernism, and New Historicism) are now known, once seemed so exciting but has become ossified and insular. This iconoclastic collection is an excellent companion to current anthologies of literary theory, which have embraced an uncritical stance toward Theory and its practitioners. Written by nearly fifty prominent scholars, the essays in Theory's Empire...

Women's Words is the first collection of writings devoted exclusively to exploring the theoretical, methodological, and practical problems that arise when women utilize oral history as a tool of feminist scholarship. In thirteen multi-disciplin ary esays, the book takes stock of the implicit presuppositions, contradictions, and prospects of oral history at the hands of feminist scholars.

In this new and expanded edition of their controversial 1994 book, the authors update their analysis of what's gone wrong with women's studies programs. Their three new chapters provide a devastating and detailed examination of the routine practices found in feminist teaching and research. movement. With close to 700 women's studies programs and departments currently in existence throughout the United States, academic feminism is now a strong presence on college campuses and beyond. But, as Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge charge, the attempt to make women's studies serve a political agenda...

Feminists have often called Women's Studies the "academic arm of the women's movement." But Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge charge that the attempt to make Women's Studies serve a political agenda has led to deeply problematic results: dubious scholarship, pedagogical practices that resemble indoctrination more than education, and the alienation of countless potential supporters. In this new and expanded edition of their controversial 1994 book, the authors update their analysis of what's gone wrong with Women's Studies programs. Original chapters feature interviews with professors,...

Rediscovering Forgotten Radicals reintroduces the work of writers and activists whose texts, and often whose very lives, were passionately engaged in the major political issues of their times but who have been displaced from both the historical and the literary record. Focusing on seventeen writers whose common concern was radically to change the status quo, this collection of thirteen essays challenges not only the neglect of these particular writers but also the marginalization of women from British political life and literary history. This volume's recuperation of them alters our...

Twenty Brazilian women, including domestic servants, secretaries, nuns, hairdressers, prostitutes, schoolgirls, and entrepreneurs, discuss their lives.

A scathing criticism of political and sexual correctness, this thought-provoking and powerfully argued book is sure to incite debate among all concerned with the legacy and future of woman's rights.

FRAMING THEORY'S EMPIRE started life as a "book event"-an online, roundtable-style symposium on THEORY'S EMPIRE (Columbia UP, 2005). Two dozen contributors offered reviews, criticism, and commentary. Now in book form, it includes a preface by Scott McLemee and afterthoughts from THEORY'S EMPIRE'S editors. WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID . . . As the Theory Era draws to a close, we need more than ever intelligent rumination and debate over what it all meant. THEORY'S EMPIRE was an important step in that direction. Framing THEORY'S EMPIRe carries on the conversation with sophistication and flair. -Denis...

This volume brings together for the first time more than two dozen of Daphne PataiOs incisive and at times satirical essays dealing with the academic and intellectual orthodoxies of our time. Patai draws on her years of experience in an increasingly bizarre academic world, where a stifling politicization threatens genuine teaching and learning. Addressing the rise of feminist dogma, the domination of politics over knowledge, the shoddy thinking and moralizing that hide behind identity politics, and the degradation of scholarship, her essays offer a resounding defense of liberal values. Patai...