authored images of women (or men), as well as distinctly male and
female genres, are part of our intellectual heritage? Perhaps most
important, are literary differences between men and women essen-
tial or accidental, biologically determined or culturally constructed?

Feminist critics have addressed themselves to these problems with
increasing sophistication during the last two decades, as they sought
to revise, or at times replace, ad hominem arguments with ad feminam
speculations. Whether explicating individual texts, studying the
oeuvre of a single author, examining the permutations of a major
theme, or charting the contours of a tradition, these theorists and
scholars have consistently sought to define literary manifestations
of difference and to understand the dynamics that have shaped the
accomplishments of literary women.

As a consequence of such work, feminist critics, often employing
new modes of analysis, have begun to uncover a neglected female
tradition along with a heretofore hidden history of the literary
dialogue between men and women. This series is dedicated to
publishing books that will use innovative as well as traditional
interpretive methods in order to help readers of both sexes achieve
a clearer consciousness of that neglected but powerful tradition and
a better understanding of that hidden history. Reason tells us, after
all, that if, transcending prejudice and special pleading, we speak
to, and focus on, the woman as well as the man--if we think ad
feminam as well as ad hominem--we will have a better chance of
understanding what constitutes the human.

Sandra M. Gilbert

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