 | Soft Canons: American Women Writers Subjects: American literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism; American literature -- Male authors -- History and criticism; Women and literature -- United States -- History; Influence (Literary artistic etc.); Authorship -- Sex differences; Masculinity; Recognizing that masculine literary tradition can include marginalized male writers as well as canonized female writers and that traditions themselves change over time, the essays in this insightful and coherent collection also explore the investment of the writers, as well as ninetieth- and twentieth-century readers, in canon creation. As it reconstructs conversations between these earlier authors and initiates new dialogues for today's readers, Soft Canons offers provocative reconceptualizations of American literary and cultural history. Karen Kilcup is professor of American literature, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Named a U.S. National Distinguished Teacher in 1987, she was recently the Davidson Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida International University. She is the editor of Soft Canons: American Women Writers and Masculine Tradition (University of Iowa, 1999) and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: An Anthology and the author of Robert Frost and Feminine Literary Tradition. |
