Figuring the Woman Author in Contemporary Fiction

MARY EAGLETON is Professor in Contemporary Women's Writing at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.

• Acknowledgements Introduction: Birth, Death and Resurrection Feminism and the Death of the Author Playing the Field: Women's Access to Cultural Production Lost and Found: The Making of the Woman Author Tell Me a Story: Women Oral Narrators 'A Constant State of Tension': Academic Women Authors Finding the Right Words: Authors of Romantic Fiction Reluctant Authors Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

'One of the excellent qualities of Eagleton's book is its recapitulation of the development not only of feminist criticism but literary criticism at large during the last thirty years.' - Marion Shaw, Journal of Gender Studies 'Eagleton's analyses of the authors covered in each chapter are lively, astute and convincing; so much so that the reader will certainly be tempted to pick up the novels under scrutiny. Unlike a lot of critical writing, this is a very entertaining read.' - Laura Kirkley, Women: A Cultural Review