To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, Jun 22, 1995 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 181 pages

"To Write Like a Woman is a rare example of a feminist tackling science fictuion using postmodern theory, which makes for a much more sophisticated and nuanced appraisal than the usual fare." —Passion

"Russ' essays are witty and insightful. An excellent book for any writer or reader." —Feminist Bookstore News

"In her new book of essays . . . Russ continues to debunk and demand, edify and entertain. . . . Appreciative of surface aesthetics, she continually delves deeper than most critics, yet in terms so simple and accessible that her essays read like lively, angry, humorous dialogues conducted face-to-face with the author. Russ is the antithesis of the distant critic in her ivory tower." —Paul Di Filippo, The Washington Post Book World

" . . . 20 years of the author's feisty reports from the front lines of literature." —The San Francisco Review of Books

"This is a book of imaginative and provoking essays, but you should read it for the sheer fun of it." —The Women's Review of Books

"Collects more than two decades of criticism by Joanna Russ, one of the most perceptive, forthright and eloquent feminist commentators around." —Feminist Bookstore News

" . . . a super book. . . .This is a book that, for once, really will appeal to readers of all kinds." —Utopian Studies

"If you enjoy science fiction, this is definitely a book that you'll want to talk about. I found myself sneaking a few pages at times when I really didn't have time to read." —Jan Catano, Atlantis

Classic essays on science fiction and feminism by Nebula and Hugo award-winning Joanna Russ. Here she ranges from a consideration of the aesthetic of science fiction to a reading of the lesbian identity of Willa Cather. To Write Like a Woman includes essays on horror stories and the supernatural, feminist utopias, popular literature for women (the "modern gothic"), and the feminist education of graduate students in English.

 

Contents

The Subjunctivity
15
the Sexes in Science Fiction
41
On the Fascination of Horror Stories
60
Part Two 7 What Can a Heroine
79
Somebodys Trying to Kill Me and I Think
94
On Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
120
Transformations of Identity
149
INDEX
177
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1995)

Joanna Russ was born in New York City on February 22, 1937. She received a degree in English from Cornell University in 1957 and a MFA in playwriting from the Yale Drama School in 1960. She taught at various colleges and universities during her lifetime including a long stint at the University of Washington in Seattle. She was a critic and science fiction writer best known for books of criticism such as The Female Man (1975) and How to Suppress Women's Writing (1984) as well as the novel And Chaos Died (1970). She died on April 29, 2011 at the age of 74.