The Politics of the Essay: Feminist Perspectives

"The Politics of the Essay is that rare scholarly work that provides both a history of this relatively new field and of its formal characteristics and inspires its readers to want to participate in the making of this history." ―Signs

The first in-depth study of the relationship between women and essays. Employing gender, race, class, and national identity as axes of analysis, this volume introduces new perspectives into what has been a largely apolitical discussion of the essay. Includes an original essay by Susan Griffin.

RUTH-ELLEN BOETCHER JOERES is Professor of German at the University of Minnesota and editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She is the author of Die Anfänge der deutschen Frauenbewegung: Louise Otto-Peters and co-editor of several volumes, including German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Social and Literary History, and Interpreting Women’s Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives. ELIZABETH MITTMAN is a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University. She is also the co-editor and co-translator of a forthcoming collection of early German Romantic texts.