Feminist Theory, Women's Writing

This remarkable book argues for what the author calls a 'feminist theory of complexity,' which offers a dialogical materialism capable of explaining how traditionally marginalized women writers challenge established notions of literature and criticism; a way out of the impasse between Anglo-American feminists' emphasis on 'female oppression,' 'women's experience,' 'women's languages,' on one hand, and the political paralysis often attributed to Continental poststructuralist theory, on the other; and a dismantling of established literary periodization by treating medieval literary texts alongside modern ones.

- E. Jane Burns (Speculum)