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.
JOANNA RUSS has published science-fiction novels, short stories, and criticism for thirty-five years and has been active as a feminist for twenty-five. Her books include The Female Man, The Two of Them, How to Suppress Women's Writing, and Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans and Perverts: Feminist Essays.
Part One 1. Towards an Aesthetic of Science Fiction 2. Speculations: The Subjunctivity of Science Fiction 3. SF and Technology as Mystification 4. Amor Vincit Foeminam: The Battle of the Sexes in science Fiction 5. On the Fascination of Horror Stories, Including Lovecraft's 6. A Boy and His Dog: The Final Solution Part Two 7. What Can a Heroine Do? or Why Women Can't Write 8. Somebody's Trying to Kill Me and I Think It's My Husband: The Modern Gothic 9. On mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 10. Recent Feminist Utopias 11. To Write "Like a Woman": Transformations of Identity in the Work of Willa Cather 12. On "The Yellow Wallpaper" 13. Is "Smashing" Erotic? 14. Letter to Susan Koppelman
Joanna Russ's classic essays on science fiction and feminism.
