Carefully melding theory with close readings of texts, the
contributors to
Ambiguous Discourse explore the role of
gender in the struggle for narrative control of specific works by
British writers Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Anita Brookner, Angela
Carter, Jeanette Winterson, and Mina Loy. This collection of twelve
essays is the first book devoted to feminist narratology--the
combination of feminist theory with the study of the structures
that underpin all narratives. Until recently, narratology has
resisted the advances of feminism in part, as some contributors
argue, because theory has replicated past assumptions of male
authority and point of view in narrative. Feminist narratology,
however, contextualizes the cultural constructions of gender within
its study of narrative strategies. Nine of these essays are
original, and three have been revised for publication in this
volume. The contributors are Melba Cuddy-Keane, Denise Delorey,
Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Susan Stanford Friedman, Janet Giltrow,
Linda Hutcheon, Susan S. Lanser, Alison Lee, Patricia Matson, Kathy
Mezei, Christine Roulston, and Robyn Warhol.