Applying a broad range of theory to film, this work highlights and explains feminist issues, with analyses. It begins with a historical survey of contemporary feminist theory, visual aesthetics and film theory, with a particular focus on the work of Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, E. Ann Kaplan and bell hooks. Other chapters examine the issues of reproduction, pornography and the gaze, autobiography and literary theory, postmodernism, black feminism and the personal is political in relation to a variety of mainstream and independent films, including Klute, Dead Ringers, A Question of Silence,...

This introduction to feminist literary criticism in its international contexts discusses a broad range of complex critical writings and then identifies and explains the main developments and debates within each approach. Each chapter has an easy-to-use format, comprising an introductory overview, an explanation of key themes and techniques, a detailed account of the work of specific critics, and a summary which includes critiques of the approach. Each chapter is accompanied by a guide to the primary texts and further reading.