Contemporary female novelists tend to portray the relationship between women and the state as profoundly negative, in contrast to various constructions in current feminist theory. Martine Watson Brownley analyzes novels by Margaret Atwood, Paule Marshall, Nadine Gordimer, and Margaret Drabble to explore the significance of this disparity. The book uses literary analysis to highlight elements of state power that many feminist theorists currently occlude, ranging from women's still minimal access to state politics to the terrifying violence exercised by modern states. At the same time, however, feminist theory clarifies major elements in many contemporary women's lives about which the novels are ambivalent or misleading, such as romantic love and the role of sexuality in state politics. Deferrals of Domain fills a double gap, both authorial and topical, in current critical treatments of women writers and will be of interest to both literary and women's studies scholars.
- ISBN10 134962618X
- ISBN13 9781349626182
- Publish Date 14 January 2014 (first published 1 January 2000)
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Out of Print 11 October 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Edition Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2000
- Format Paperback
- Pages 295
- Language English