This book is the first broad survey of feminist critical theory and practice, and one of the few contributions to the subject to have been written by a male academic, in the belief that the basic premise of feminist literary criticism - that gender is the crucial factor in the production, circulation, and reception of literary texts - is of fundamental importance to all serious students of literature. The book focuses on three main aspects: first, the impact of Marxism, structuralism, and post-structuralism on feminist critical practice; second, the argument that in a male-dominated society literary language, conventions, and forms are shaped by masculine biases; third, analyses of the characteristic styles and traditions of women's writing as distinct from men's.