This lively and controversial collection of essays sets out to theorize and practice a ‘materialist-feminist’ criticism of literature and culture. Such a criticism is based on the view that the material conditions in which men and women live are central to an understanding of culture and society. It emphasises the relation of gender to other categories of analysis, such as class and race, and considers the connection between ideology and cultural practice, and the ways in which all relations of power change with changing social and economic conditions. By presenting a wide range of work by major feminist scholars, this anthology in effect defines as well as illustrates the materialist-feminist tendency in current literary criticism. The essays in the first part of the book examine race, ideology, and the literary canon and explore the ways in which other critical discourse, such as those of deconstruction and French feminism, might be useful to a feminist and materialist criticism. The second part of the book contains examples of such criticism in practice, with studies of individual works, writers and ideas. An introduction by the editors situates the collected essays in relation both to one another and to a shared materialist/feminist project. Feminist Criticism and Social Change demonstrates the important contribution of materialist-feminist criticism to our understanding of literature and society, and fulfils a crucial need among those concerned with gender and its relation to criticism.

Feminist Criticism and Social Change: Sex, Class and Race in Literature and Culture

Literature & Fiction

Newton, Judith

History & Criticism

Routledge& Kegan Paul

This volume, which focuses on women in nineteenth-century Britain and America and includes work by scholars in both countries, takes its place in a long history of Anglo-American debate. The collection adopts what Joan Kelly . . . calls 'the doubled vision of feminist theory,' the view that it is the simultaneous operation of relations of class and of sex/gender that perpetuate both patriarchy and capitalism. . . . Many of these articles had their origin at an international conference in women's history at which the theoretical and political agendas of feminist historians were discussed with a vigour and urgency possible only where scholarship is infused with social aims. Both the vigour and the urgency can be clearly felt in the essays collected here."

Sex and Class in Women's History (HISTORY WORKSHOP SERIES)

Politics & Social Sciences

Ryan, Mary P.

Social Sciences

Routledge

From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement (New Social Formations)

Written for a general audience, From Panthers to Promise Keepers draws on years of readings about, interviews with, and intimate observations of the men and networks who were involved in what some have called "the men's movement." Focusing on the decades between 1950 and 2000 in the U.S., From Panthers to Promise Keepers places networks of gay men and of black men (and women) at the center of its investigations, exploring some of the unexpected ways in which these seemingly marginal networks were precursors to, rather than mere followers of, the white and heterosexual men's groups that followed and that became the objects of media attention. This study also demonstrates that networks with radically different positions on important social issues nonetheless shared two related activities―criticizing individualist, self-making values and attempting, through surprisingly similar ritual practices, to construct ideals of masculinity that were more expressive of vulnerability, tenderness, and care. Men's politically varied efforts to refashion masculine ideals during the last 50 years have contributed to a different global climate with respect to masculinities. Near the end of the 1990s, agencies such as UNESCO helped the reform of masculine ideals become more widely seen as a necessary component of movements for social justice and a "culture of peace." Current efforts to revive a more aggressive and force-based masculine ideal, a "masculinity for a culture of war," are one of many testaments to the cultural resonance of what has been called "the men's movement."

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Written for a general audience, From Panthers to Promise Keepers draws on years of readings about, interviews with, and intimate observations of the men and networks who were involved in what some have called 'the men's movement.' Focusing on the decades between 1950 and 2000 in the U.S., From Panthers to Promise Keepers places networks of gay men and of black men (and women) at the center of its investigations, exploring some of the unexpected ways in which these seemingly marginal networks were precursors to, rather than mere followers of, the white and heterosexual men's groups that followed and that became the objects of media attention. This study also demonstrates that networks with radically different positions on important social issues nonetheless shared two related activities―criticizing individualist, self-making values and attempting, through surprisingly similar ritual practices, to construct ideals of masculinity that were more expressive of vulnerability, tenderness, and care. Men's politically varied efforts to refashion masculine ideals during the last 50 years have contributed to a different global climate with respect to masculinities. Near the end of the 1990s, agencies such as UNESCO helped the reform of masculine ideals become more widely seen as a necessary component of movements for social justice and a 'culture of peace.' Current efforts to revive a more aggressive and force-based masculine ideal, a 'masculinity for a culture of war,' are one of many testaments to the cultural resonance of what has been called 'the men's movement.'

If Julia Child had cooked Italian for a gay husband, used sugar to sweeten a sour childhood, and hosted buffets for a better world, she could have written Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen. In this food memoir, Judith Newton shares the unforgettable story of a life on the front lines of activism and in the kitchen. During a difficult childhood, food and cooking were sources of comfort and emotional sustenance. And in the decades to come, through her marriage to a gay man, her discovery of feminism, her life in a commune, and her career as an academic, she used food to sustain personal and political relationships, mourn losses, and celebrate victories. As she earned her activist stripes in the 1960s and beyond, she also learned how food could ease tension, foster community, and build cross-racial ties. Tasting Home combines recipes with personal vignettes, in the classic form of food memoirs by writers such as M.F.K. Fisher and Ruth Reichl, to take us on a remarkable journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through the 2000s. By turns moving, joyful, thoughtful, and wry, it is sprinkled with recipes and scenes of cooking and dining that invite us to feel how deeply food is tied to identity, love, community, and political engagement. If you loved Like Water for Chocolate, you should try Tasting Home. See an essay based on this book, "A Valentine for My Gay Ex-Husband," at Huffington Post Judith Newton.

Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen

Parenting & Relationships

She Writes Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Newton, Judith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Newton, Judith

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Newton, Judith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Feminist Criticism and Social Change: Sex, Class and Race in Literature and Culture

Sex and Class in Women's History (HISTORY WORKSHOP SERIES)

From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement (New Social Formations)

From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement (New Social Formations)

Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen