Gender in American Literature and Culture introduces readers to key developments in gender studies and American literary criticism. It offers nuanced readings of literary conventions and genres from early American writings to the present and moves 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 to a sense of 21st century cultural and political crisis, it illuminates the literary histories and cultural imaginaries that have set the stage for urgent contemporary debates.

‘Required reading for anyone seeking to understand the wide diversity of approaches to gender in American literature, this book is a welcome update for scholars of American studies and gender studies … Highly recommended.’

D. E. Magill Source: Choice Magazine

'The book provides a fresh take on subjects of broad interest. It is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses, graduate students seeking a foundation in the issues that animate scholarship on gender in US literature, and scholars seeking new approaches to familiar subjects.'

Aimee Armande Wilson Source: Legacy