Books

The Captive Imagination
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FP Price:$23.96

CATHERINE J. GOLDEN is an associate professor of English at Skidmore College.

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The Captive Imagination

A Casebook on "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Edited by Catherine J. Golden

This volume by a leading Gilman scholar provides crucial historical background and rich interpretations of this complex and compelling work. From the uneasy ambivalence of William Dean Howells to the feminist accolades of the 1970s and 1980s, and from semiotics to the history of women's health care, this critical edition brings together writings from a broad range of disciplines spanning over 100 years.

"The Feminist Press critical edition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' includes ample material for a rich dialogue on many questions: the position of women in society both 100 years ago and today; the relationship between biography and fiction; changing psychological theories about women and madness; the creative process; writing as therapy; the uses of language; and the complexities of literary criticism. Such a dialogue will make a strong case for literary study as an avenue to cultural understanding."

—Mary Anne Ferguson, professor emerita of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston and editor of Images of Women in Literature

"The terrors of a woman's life that Gilman hauntingly exposed caused editors to refuse to publish it when she wrote it but are the very qualities for which the story is today cherished and valued. This is a splendid collection—another triumph for The Feminist Press."

—Ann J. Lane, director, women's studies, University of Virginia, and author of To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman