Gender and Reading

Elizabeth A. Flynn is associate professor of reading and composition, coordinator of writing programs, and director of the Institute for research on Language and Learning at Michigan Technological University. She is the editor of Reader: Essays in Reader-Oriented Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy. Patrocinio P. Schweickart is associate professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. Her essay "Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of Reading" won the 1984 Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship.

• PrefaceIntroductionPart I. Research and TheoryChapter 1. The Reader's Consturction of Meaning: Cognitive Research on Gender and ComprehensionChapter 2. Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of ReadingChapter 2. Ourself behind Ourself: A Theory for Lesbian ReadersPart II. TextsChapter 4. Taking the Gold Out of Egypt: The Art of Reading as a WomanChapter 5. Fathers and Daughters:" Women as Readers of the TatlerChapter 6. Malraux's Women: A Re-visionChapter 7. Reading about Reading: "A Jury of Her Peers," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Yellow Wallpaper"Chapter 8. "As the Twig Is Bent . . .": Gender and Childhood ReadingPart III. ReadersChapter 10. Gothic PossibilitiesChapter 11. Gender Interests in Reading and LanguageChaper 12. Gender and ReadingA Selected Annotated BibliographyContributors

An unprecedented encounter between feminist criticism, reading-research and reader-response criticism... I found Gender and Reading a valuable book to read as a feminist critic. Valuable because it asserts our rights, as women, to read; to read as women. Valuable because it begins a dialogue among so many varieties of criticism and theory. -- Susan Squier Women's Review of Books.