{"title":"Literary Criticism--Subjects \u0026 Themes--Women","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"when-you-listen-to-this-song-on-memory-loss-and-writing","title":"When You Listen to This Song: On Memory, Loss, and Writing","description":"\u003cb\u003eA quietly powerful exploration of memory and forgetting, from one of France's leading feminist public intellectuals \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In 2021, the award-winning French writer Lola Lafon was granted permission to stay overnight--alone for ten hours--in the Annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family had hidden from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944. Lafon's visit to this space, where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, evoked the confinement and constant danger suffered by the Franks, and the family's ghostly presence as well. \"The night was inhabited, lit by reflections,\" Lafon writes. \"Some urgency still dwelled at the heart of the Annex, crouched there, ready to be discovered.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Exploring the many stories told about Anne Frank, Lafon tries to find the precocious girl at the heart of the venerated and exploited myth, a disciplined writer whose famous diary is in fact a wonderfully constructed literary work. Throughout, Lafon reflects on what it means to lose loved ones, both Lafon's own family in the Holocaust and her childhood friend to the Khmer Rouge. A prizewinner and bestseller in France, this book asks us to consider the stories we tell ourselves about tragedy, how we grapple with loss, and why, in the face of danger and confinement, women write.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0300275889\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780300275889\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Lafon, Lola, Elkin, Lauren, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Nov 2025)","offer_id":45658783809733,"sku":"9780300275889","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780300275889.jpg?v=1768904614"},{"product_id":"memory","title":"Memory","description":"\u003cb\u003eA poet's spacious exploration of time, memory, and art, in homage to Bernadette Mayer.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA spiritual homage to Bernadette Mayer's monumental artwork of the same title, Dorothea Lasky's \u003ci\u003eMemory\u003c\/i\u003e is a cycle of \"poet's essays\" stirred by two profound questions. What constitutes personhood and consciousness? What memories get lost, and why? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExpansive in her quest for answers, Lasky launches an inspired investigation of the forces that form our lives and deepest senses of ourselves. She identifies three dimensions of memory--ancestral, personal, and poetic--and in her singularly clear voice, undertakes to enter into their mysteries. From those recesses, she returns with a wide-ranging collection of essays that like lyric poems find the universal inside the particular. \u003ci\u003eMemory\u003c\/i\u003e reflects on the banal; private emotions and historical trauma; dear departed poets (Diane di Prima, Lucie Brock-Broido); her father's battle with Alzheimer's; and cultural events that have become charged sites of collective reminiscence (the moon landing, the music of Neutral Milk Hotel). Other pieces face the flip side of memory, asking what's left where memory is absent, and what's \"real\" beyond the horizon of death. The book closes with \"Time, the Rose, and the Moon,\" an ars poetica published here in English for the first time, which offers the ancient symbol of the Ouroboros as a figure for the nonlinear processes of time, memory, and art. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLike Mayer before her, Lasky reveals memory to be huge and haunting, as she accumulates impressions that challenge the very possibility of fixed meaning. \"Every rose has the scent of death,\" she writes. \"And poetry is a perfume. That will stay on your body forever.... Whatever happens this time around, remember that.\"\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1635902592\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781635902594\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Lasky, Dorothea, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Semiotext(e)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Semiotext(e)","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2025)","offer_id":45659225063621,"sku":"9781635902594","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781635902594.jpg?v=1768907152"},{"product_id":"delusions-of-grandeur-of-romance-of-progress","title":"Delusions: Of Grandeur, of Romance, of Progress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this sharp and darkly funny new essay collection from the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author, Cazzie David explores the irony and existential crises of leaving youth behind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith her thirtieth birthday fast approaching, Cazzie reflects on the delusions that laid waste to her twenties and reckons with their consequences now that the specter of a new decade is looming. 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With \u003ci\u003eThe Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women\u003c\/i\u003e, you can clap back at bad dates, micromanaging bosses, irritating strangers, and tiresome guests while keeping your chin and pinky up, just like the queen of clever comebacks herself. Austen's timeless retorts work just as well today as they did two hundred years ago: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- When they start talking before coffee: \"I am worn out with civility.\"\u003cbr\u003e- When They Haven't asked you a single question: \"Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.\"\u003cbr\u003e- When They Leave wet towels on the floor: \"I send no compliments to your mother.\"\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1250372941\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781250372949\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Reed, Emily, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Castle Point Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Castle Point Books","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Apr 2025)","offer_id":45659611726021,"sku":"9781250372949","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781250372949.jpg?v=1768913116"},{"product_id":"the-jane-austen-romance-guide-for-well-bred-women-spotting-red-flags-from-across-the-ballroom","title":"The Jane Austen Romance Guide for Well-Bred Women: Spotting Red Flags from Across the Ballroom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNo one knows red flags like Jane Austen!\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhy settle for mediocre dating advice when you can consult the queen of the meet-cute? With \u003ci\u003eThe Jane Austen Romance Guide for Well-Bred Women\u003c\/i\u003e, you can effortlessly dispense with rakes, avoid boring suitors, \u003cbr\u003eevade meddling relations, and raise the bar for love like a proper regency-era heroine. 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Searching for clues in the work of her literary foremothers, Lipson untangles what it means to be a girl, a woman, a lover, a partner, a daughter, and a mother in a world all too ready to reduce us to stock characters. Whether she's testing the fragile borders of fidelity, embracing the taboo power of female friendship, escaping her family for the solitude of the mountains, grappling with what to do with her frozen embryos, or letting go of the children she imagined for the ones she's raising, Lipson pushes beyond the easy, surface stories we tell about ourselves to brave less certain territory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As Lipson journeys through this thorny terrain, literature becomes her lodestar. Kate Chopin's erotic story \"The Storm\" helps her reckon with the longings stirring below the surface of her marriage. Watching her son absorb the stifling codes of manhood, she finds unlikely parenting inspiration in Philip Roth's most cartoonish overbearing mother. Summoning Gwendolyn Brooks, she asks, \u003ci\u003eCan destroying one's frozen embryos be understood as a maternal act?\u003c\/i\u003e And accompanied by Shakespeare's gender-bending heroine Rosalind, she seizes on the truest meaning of loving her oldest child. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Risky and revealing, nourishing and affirming, rigorous and sexy, \u003ci\u003eMothers and Other Fictional Characters\u003c\/i\u003e is a shimmering love letter to our forgotten selves--and the ones we're still becoming.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1797228560\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781797228563\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Lipson, Nicole Graev\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Chronicle Prism\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Chronicle Prism","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2025)","offer_id":46080995524805,"sku":"9781797228563","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781797228563.jpg?v=1776042659"},{"product_id":"penelopes-bones-a-new-history-of-homers-world-through-the-women-written-out-of-it","title":"Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It","description":"\u003cb\u003eWeaving together literary and archaeological evidence, Emily Hauser illuminates the rich, intriguing lives of the real women behind Homer's \u003ci\u003eIliad\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Achilles. 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In this captivating journey through Homer's world, Hauser explains era-defining discoveries, such as the excavation of Troy and the decipherment of Linear B tablets that reveal thousands of captive women and their children; more recent finds like the tomb of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos, whose tomb contents challenge traditional gender attributes; DNA evidence showing that groups of warriors buried near the Black Sea with their weapons and steeds were, in fact, Amazon-like female fighters; a prehistoric dye workshop on Crete that casts fresh light on \"women's work\" of dyeing, spinning, and weaving textiles; and a superbly preserved shipwreck off the coast of Turkey whose contents tell of the economic and diplomatic networks crisscrossing the Bronze Age Mediterranean. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Essential reading for fans of Madeline Miller or Natalie Haynes, this riveting new history brings to life the women of the Bronze Age Aegean as never before, offering a groundbreaking reassessment of the ancient world.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0226839680\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780226839684\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Hauser, Emily\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jun 2025)","offer_id":46081076297925,"sku":"9780226839684","price":28.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780226839684.jpg?v=1776042886"},{"product_id":"shakespeares-margaret-the-dramatic-life-of-a-warrior-queen","title":"Shakespeare's Margaret: The Dramatic Life of a Warrior Queen","description":"\u003cp\u003eShe is more violent than Lady Macbeth, more complex than Ophelia, more strategic than King Lear's daughters. She is the only Shakespearean character, male or female, whose entire life--from youth to old age--appears on stage. She is a wealth of insight into Shakespeare's understanding of, and influence on, ideas of gender and sexuality, and she speaks by far the most lines of any of his female characters. She has allowed the likes of Peggy Ashcroft, Helen Mirren, and Sophie Okonedo full range for their stunning talents. Yet today, most audiences have still never heard of Margaret of Anjou.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut who was Margaret? In the fifteenth century, she was a fourteen-year-old French princess married to an English king, soon thrust into command amid a bloody civil war. 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From Greek and Roman legends to tales from around the globe, this fresh, feminist take shines a new light on iconic figures like Medusa, Hera, and Persephone, revealing the power, complexity, and agency they've always had. Vibrantly illustrated and told with clarity and wit, \u003ci\u003eAncient Myths and Legends Without Men\u003c\/i\u003e is a must-read for mythology lovers and anyone eager to revisit these stories through a new lens. 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In \u003ci\u003eSplinters, \u003c\/i\u003eJamison turns her unrivaled powers of perception on some of her most intimate relationships: new motherhood, a ruptured marriage, and the shaping legacy of her own parents' complicated bond. In examining what it means for a woman to be many things at once, Jamison juxtaposes the magical and the mundane in surprising ways. The result is a work of nonfiction like no other, a deep reckoning that grieves the departure of one love even as it celebrates the arrival of another. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e How do we move forward into joy while haunted by loss? How do we claim hope alongside the harm we've caused? A memoir for which the term \u003ci\u003etour de force\u003c\/i\u003e seems to have been coined, \u003ci\u003e Splinters \u003c\/i\u003eplumbs these questions with writing that is revelatory to the last page, full of the linguistic daring and emotional acuity that made \u003ci\u003eThe Empathy Exams\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Recovering\u003c\/i\u003e instant classics. 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