What do you think?
Rate this book
Merlin's Daughters: Contemporary Women Writers of Fantasy
The relationship between fantasy and the feminine is explored in this compelling study of women writers of the genre. Spivak provides a revisioning of such archetypes as the wizard, the hero, and the dragon, and considers why women writers are currently dominating this field formerly occupied almost exclusively by men, as well as how women readers identify with the enchanted quest. Chapters provide a feminist perspective and analysis of leading women fantasists of the past two decades as well as promising new voices.
The relationship between fantasy and the feminine is explored in this compelling study of women writers of the genre. Spivak provides a revisioning of such archetypes as the wizard, the hero, and the dragon, and considers why women writers are currently dominating this field formerly occupied almost exclusively by men, as well as how women readers identify with the enchanted quest. Chapters provide a feminist perspective and analysis of leading women fantasists of the past two decades as well as promising new voices.
The relationship between fantasy and the feminine is explored in this compelling study of women writers of the genre. Spivak provides a revisioning of such archetypes as the wizard, the hero, and the dragon, and considers why women writers are currently dominating this field formerly occupied almost exclusively by men, as well as how women readers identify with the enchanted quest. Chapters provide a feminist perspective and analysis of leading women fantasists of the past two decades as well as promising new voices.
- GenresFantasy
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 13, 1987
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
March 27, 2017
A decent book which looks at the feminist themes used in the fantasy writings of various writers. The book came out in the early 1980s so it is reflective of the state of feminist literary critique of that time, so bear that in mind when using it as a research resource.
The format of the book is fairly straightforward: Spivack looks at a writer's given work, does a thorough summary of it and talks about how that work reflects the themes she's pinpointed. It's pretty spoiler-ful so bear that in mind if she starts discussing a work that you'd like to read someday. I put this book down and finished Patricia McKillip's Riddle-master trilogy before continuing, to avoid spoilers.
I also found the chapters on authors whose works I haven't read to be less interesting, since those chapters were 80% summary of the works in question, and 20% discussion of themes that have already been examined in earlier chapters. So I skipped maybe about a quarter of the book. With that in mind, it's good reference material if someone's doing research on this topic, but less interesting as a cover-to-cover read.
The format of the book is fairly straightforward: Spivack looks at a writer's given work, does a thorough summary of it and talks about how that work reflects the themes she's pinpointed. It's pretty spoiler-ful so bear that in mind if she starts discussing a work that you'd like to read someday. I put this book down and finished Patricia McKillip's Riddle-master trilogy before continuing, to avoid spoilers.
I also found the chapters on authors whose works I haven't read to be less interesting, since those chapters were 80% summary of the works in question, and 20% discussion of themes that have already been examined in earlier chapters. So I skipped maybe about a quarter of the book. With that in mind, it's good reference material if someone's doing research on this topic, but less interesting as a cover-to-cover read.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review