Gender in American Literature and Culture

Gender in American Literature and Cultureintroduces readers to key developments in gender studies and American literary criticism.Itoffers nuanced readings of literary conventions and genres from early American writings to the present andmoves beyond inflexible categories of masculinity and femininity that have reinforced misleading assumptions about public and private spaces, domesticity, individualism, and community. The book also demonstrates how rigid inscriptions of gender have perpetuated a legacy of violence and exclusion in the United States. Responding toa sense of 21st century cultural and political crisis, itilluminates the literary histories and cultural imaginaries that have set the stage for urgent contemporary debates.