Editing Feminism (section)

=== Literature ===
{{Main|Feminist literature}}
{{See also|Écriture féminine|List of American feminist literature|List of feminist literature|List of feminist poets}}
[[File:Butler signing.jpg|thumb|[[Octavia Butler]], award-winning feminist science fiction author]]

The feminist movement produced [[feminist fiction]], feminist non-fiction, and [[feminist poetry]], which created new interest in [[Women's writing (literary category)|women's writing]]. It also prompted a general reevaluation of women's [[Women's history|historical]] and academic contributions in response to the belief that women's lives and contributions have been underrepresented as areas of scholarly interest.<ref name=Blain>{{cite book |author=Blain, Virginia |author2=Clements, Patricia |author3=Grundy, Isobel |title=The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present |date=1990 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-04854-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/feministcompanio00blai/page/ vii–x] |url=https://archive.org/details/feministcompanio00blai/page/}}</ref> There has also been a close link between feminist literature and [[activism]], with feminist writing typically voicing key concerns or ideas of feminism in a particular era.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Much of the early period of feminist literary scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women. In Western feminist literary scholarship, Studies like [[Dale Spender]]'s ''[[Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen|Mothers of the Novel]]'' (1986) and Jane Spencer's ''The Rise of the Woman Novelist'' (1986) were ground-breaking in their insistence that women have always been writing.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Commensurate with this growth in scholarly interest, various presses began the task of reissuing long-out-of-print texts. [[Virago Press]] began to publish its large list of 19th- and early-20th-century novels in 1975 and became one of the first commercial presses to join in the project of reclamation. In the 1980s, [[Pandora Press]], responsible for publishing Spender's study, issued a companion line of 18th-century novels written by women.<ref>{{cite news |author-link=Sandra Gilbert |first=Sandra M. |last=Gilbert |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DD1E3AF937A35756C0A960948260 |title=Paperbacks: From Our Mothers' Libraries: Women Who Created the Novel |work=The New York Times |date=4 May 1986}}</ref> More recently, [[Broadview Press]] continues to issue 18th- and 19th-century novels, many hitherto out of print, and the [[University of Kentucky]] has a series of republications of early women's novels.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Particular works of literature have come to be known as key feminist texts. ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]'' (1792) by [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. ''[[A Room of One's Own]]'' (1929) by [[Virginia Woolf]], is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

The widespread interest in women's writing is related to a general reassessment and expansion of the [[literary canon]]. Interest in [[post-colonial literature]]s, [[LGBT literature|gay and lesbian literature]], writing by people of colour, working people's writing, and the cultural productions of other historically marginalized groups has resulted in a whole scale expansion of what is considered "literature", and genres hitherto not regarded as "literary", such as children's writing, journals, letters, travel writing, and many others are now the subjects of scholarly interest.<ref name="Blain" /><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Buck |editor1-first=Claire |title=The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature |publisher=Prentice Hall |date=1992 |page=vix}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Salzman |first=Paul |chapter=Introduction |title=Early Modern Women's Writing |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2000 |pages=ix–x}}</ref> Most [[Literary genre|genres and subgenres]] have undergone a similar analysis, so literary studies have entered new territories such as the "[[Gothic fiction#The female Gothic and The Supernatural Explained|female gothic]]"<ref>Term coined by Ellen Moers in ''Literary Women: The Great Writers'' (New York: Doubleday, 1976). See also Juliann E. Fleenor, ed., ''The Female Gothic'' (Montreal: Eden Press, 1983) and Gary Kelly, ed., ''Varieties of Female Gothic'' 6 Vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2002).</ref> or [[Women in science fiction|women's science fiction]].{{cn|date=March 2025}}

According to Elyce Rae Helford, "Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice."<ref>{{cite book |author=Helford, Elyce Rae |editor-first=Gary |editor-last=Westfahl |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy |chapter=Feminist Science Fiction |date=2005 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-300-04854-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/feministcompanio00blai/page/289 289–291] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/feministcompanio00blai/page/289}}</ref> Feminist science fiction is sometimes taught at the university level to explore the role of social constructs in understanding gender.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1207/s15328023top1703_17 |title=Using Science Fiction to Teach the Psychology of Sex and Gender |date=1990 |last1=Lips |first1=Hilary M. |journal=[[Teaching of Psychology]] |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=197–98 |s2cid=145519594}}</ref> Notable texts of this kind are [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' (1969), [[Joanna Russ]]' ''[[The Female Man]]'' (1970), [[Octavia Butler]]'s ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (1979) and [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[Handmaid's Tale]]'' (1985).{{cn|date=March 2025}}

[[File:Roswitha of Gandersheim.jpg|thumb|[[Hrotsvitha]], first female writer from the [[Germanosphere]], first female historian and first feminist playwright<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hrotsvitha-gandersheim-c-935-1001 |title=Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (C. 935–1001) &#124; Encyclopedia.com |website=www.encyclopedia.com |accessdate=31 July 2024}}</ref>]]
Feminist nonfiction has played an important role in voicing concerns about women's lived experiences. For example, [[Maya Angelou]]'s ''[[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]]'' was extremely influential, as it represented the specific racism and sexism experienced by black women growing up in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://feminisminindia.com/2018/08/10/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-review-maya-angelou/ |title=I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: Angelou's Quest to Truth and Power |last=Shah |first=Mahvish |date=2018 |website=Feminism in India}}</ref>

In addition, many feminist movements have embraced [[poetry]] as a vehicle through which to communicate feminist ideas to public audiences through anthologies, poetry collections, and public readings.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/144696/a-change-of-world |title=A Change of World |last=Poetry Foundation |date=29 November 2018 |website=Poetry Foundation}}</ref>

Moreover, historical pieces of writing by women have been used by feminists to speak about what women's lives were like in the past while demonstrating the power that they held and the impact they had in their communities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Case |first=Sue-Ellen |date=December 1983 |title=Re-Viewing Hrotsvit |journal=[[Theatre Journal]] |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=533–542 |doi=10.2307/3207334 |jstor=3207334}}</ref> An important figure in the history of women's literature is [[Hrotsvitha]] ({{Circa|935}}–973), a [[canoness]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://scihi.org/hrotsvitha-gandersheim/ |title=Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim – The Most Remarkable Women of Her Time |last=Sack |first=Harald |date=6 February 2019 |website=SciHi Blog |access-date=6 December 2019 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417174212/http://scihi.org/hrotsvitha-gandersheim/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> who was an early female poet in the German lands. As a historian, Hrotsvitha is one of the few writers to address women's lives from a woman's perspective during the [[Women in the Middle Ages|Middle Ages]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frankforter |first=A. Daniel |date=February 1979 |title=Hroswitha of Gandersheim and the Destiny of Women |journal=[[The Historian (journal)|The Historian]] |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=295–314 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1979.tb00548.x |issn=0018-2370}}</ref> Hrotsvitha's six short dramas are considered to be her magnum opus. She has been called "the most remarkable woman of her time"<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.lentmadness.org/2019/03/hrotsvitha-vs-gobnait/ |author=Emily McFarlan Miller |title=Hrotsvitha Vs. Gobnait |date=20 March 2019 |website=Lent Madness |language=en-US |access-date=23 November 2019}}</ref> and an important figure in the history of women.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://scihi.org/hrotsvitha-gandersheim/ |title=Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim – The Most Remarkable Women of Her Time |last=Sack |first=Harald |date=6 February 2019 |website=SciHi Blog |language=en-US |access-date=23 November 2019 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417174212/http://scihi.org/hrotsvitha-gandersheim/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>