60s feminist novels

m.bibby (mwbibb@ark.ship.edu)
Tue, 9 Apr 1996 13:23:14 -0400

Hi, Folks:

I'm trying to set up a summer graduate seminar in Literary History on
US activist literature of the 60s. I'd like to use some works by feminists
published during the period, but I already have enough poetry and want
some fiction. My field is contemporary poetry, and so I'm a bit weak on
fiction. When I think of major feminist books of the period, they're
either nonfiction (Friedan, etc.) or poetry--and I was surprised to find
that in all the lit crit books I have on post-1945 fiction (even feminist
ones) none discuss feminist novels. My sense is that I'm just missing
something that's probably really obvious. A friend suggested Marilyn
French's _The Women's Room_, but that's a bit late. Any suggestions?
Two stipulations: it has to be American, published between 1960-1972, and
preferably fairly short--the seminar meets for only 5 weeks.

Thanks much!

Michael Bibby
Dept. of English
Shippensburg University
mwbibb@ark.ship.edu