Navigating Womens Friendships in American Literature and Culture

This volume presents a collection of critical essays that center womens friendship in womens literary and artistic production. Analyzing cultural portrayals of womens friendships in fiction, letters, and film, these essays collectively suggest new models of literary interpretation that do not prioritize heterosexual romance. Instead, this book represents friendships as mature and meaningful relationships that contribute to identity formation and political coalition. Both the supportive and competitive aspects of friendships are shown to be crucial to womens identities as individuals, political citizens, and artists. Addressing the complexities of how 20th- and 21st-century cultural texts construe womens friendships as they navigate patriarchal institutions, this collection advances scholarship on friendship beyond men and masculine models.