"Contentious behavior among biological sisters frequently contradicts ideals of sisterhood in novels by women. Additionally, feminist criticism, focusing on almost every imaginable relationship involving women, has all but ignored sisters. Amy K. Levin's The Suppressed Sister studies these circumstances, their causes and consequences. How and why is the sister bond suppressed in favor of sisterhood?" "Answers to this question may be found in female psychology, social expectations, and patriarchal myths and stories. The tales of Cinderella and Psyche are paradigmatic, providing models of female competition and inscribing a conclusion that replaces sisterly closeness with heterosexual romance." "Jane Austen's sister plot is based on these models. Her characters divide into pairs and adopt complementary personalities, but polarization does not erase competition; instead, marriage erects social and economic barriers which enforce role divisions." "In Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell shows the danger of too close an attachment to the paternal home. She, too, emphasizes differences, revealing how they ultimately lead siblings to seek a sisterhood outside the family." "In Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, George Eliot paints increasingly negative portraits of sisters, indicating that female siblings create differences where few or none exist. These denials of similarity heighten the heroines' isolation." "Twentieth-century novelists, including Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Jane Howard, and Margaret Drabble, revise their predecessors' texts, drafting a plot "after" the father's. They reject rules governing female behavior and question the expectation that women must get along with one another." "Finally, Emma Tennant's Bad Sister, together with several recent American novels, abandons the conventions of the realistic novel, challenging the very concept of character. Tennant undermines all distinctions, including those that treat sisters as separate individuals and those that classify certain behaviors as "good" or "bad."" "These novels show a progression that has been ignored or suppressed by feminist critics, many of whom long for an idyll of sisterhood inherited from nineteenth-century portraits of the "angel in the house." In denying anger or antagonism, women cut off a part of themselves, just as Cinderella's stepsisters amputate their toes to fit in her brittle glass slipper. Levin's book questions the rationale behind such self-destruction."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

“Wow wow wow! Grips you in a choke hold and does not let go… Oozes suspense and bone-chilling twists and turns. Astonishing… One of those rare books you stay up all night to read.” @a_likely_storie, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The beautiful young woman is perfectly still, curled up in the trunk of the car, her long dark hair hiding her face. Her cotton blouse has ridden up a little, revealing two small dots an inch apart on her back. Just like the others. Guilt has kept FBI Agent Tori Hunter away from her home in Manchester Bay, Minnesota for twenty years, ever since her twin sister disappeared on the Fourth of July, when the girls should have been together. But when she receives an anonymous newspaper clipping about another missing girl, Genevieve, Tori is dragged back to the past. Just like Tori’s sister, Genevieve vanished without a trace, her empty car abandoned on a lonely lakeside road as Independence Day fireworks lit up the sky overhead. Returning to Minnesota lake country, Tori finds Genevieve’s distraught parents desperate for answers. How could their beautiful, popular daughter be snatched so near her own home? Under pressure to make an arrest, the police have no time for Tori’s theories. Besides, they already have a suspect for Genevieve’s abductor: a local man seen flirting with her the night she disappeared. But then the suspect is found dead in his isolated cabin, days before another girl’s body is discovered bound and strangled in the trunk of her car, two strange dots on her back. The bloodstains surrounding her body belong to the one man Tori thought she could trust. Reeling, Tori knows the closer she gets to the truth, the more her own life is at risk. But can she catch this killer before it’s too late for Genevieve? An absolutely addictive mystery thriller that will have you turning the pages late into the night. Perfect for fans of Kendra Elliot, Robert Dugoni and Tess Gerritsen. Read what everyone’s saying about Silenced Girls: “Wow!... This book was totally impossible to put down! One of the very best books I’ve read lately! I highly recommend!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This book had me from page one! The suspense was so palpable and I found myself unable to go to bed… I just had to try and read it to the end… Suspenseful thriller! A must-read!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This book will keep you up all night!... I found myself getting so wrapped up in the characters and their lives… Silenced Girls will keep you up late and turning those pages till early dawn… leaves you guessing all the way to the very end!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Amazing… grabs your attention from the first page and keeps you turning pages well into the night... Loaded with suspense, plot twists, a touch of romance and a strong, yet vulnerable protagonist, this book has everything you need… I can’t wait to read more of Tori Hunter!” Tropical Delusions, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I was hooked into the book from the start!… so many twists and turns… completely unputdownable and I couldn't wait to see what the ending was going to be!… a fast-paced thriller that will keep you awake at night—completely worth five stars!” Tropical Girl Reads Books, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “You'll never know what hit you! Loved the characters… So many twists and turns! Loved it!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “OUTSTANDING… great read. Multiple twists which keep you turning pages… I have read all of Stelljes' books and this is at the top of the list!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Applause Books). In this anthology, theater expert Roger Ellis culls together dramatic scenes and monologues that all deal with spiritual experience. From various religious and non-religious perspectives, the book explores various aspects of spirituality religious faith, martyrdom, death and afterlife, fate and destiny, mercy, and romantic love. The material comes from contemporary plays by some of the most gifted playwrights Arthur Miller, Tony Kushner, John Patrick Shanley, John Pielmeier, Tammy Ryan, Elie, Wiesel, Karen Sunde, and others. Perfect for high-school through college-age students, as well as for actors and general readers, this volume contains nearly 100 scenes, ranging from comic to serious, grouped in five categories: "Scenes for a Man and a Woman," "Scenes for Two Women," "Scenes for Two Men," "Monologues for Women," and "Monologues for Men." In addition to the monologues, Ellis includes notes on staging to help actors and directors bring these scenes to life. Some of the plays sourced for this anthology include The Crucible , Doubt , In the Shape of a Woman , Agnes of God , Epic Proportions , Our Lady of 121st Street , Angels in America , and Affection in Time .

From the cutting edge to the basics The latest advances as well as the essentials of feminist literary theory are at your fingertips as soon as you open this brand-new reference work. It features-in quick and convenient form-precise definitions of important terms and concise summaries of the salient ideas of critics working in the field who have made significant contributions to feminist literary studies, and points out how a feminist perspective has affected the development of emerging ideas and intellectual practices. Every effort has been made to include as many feminist thinkers as possible. Expanded coverage of key subjects Overview entries cover topics ranging from creativity, beauty, and eroticism topornography, violence, and war, with a thorough exploration of the major theoretical points of feminist literary approaches and concerns. In addition, entries organized around literary periods and fields, such as medieval studies, Shakespeare and Romanticism survey subjects in the framework of feminist literary theory and feminist concerns. Shows how feminist ideas have shaped literary theory The Encyclopedia gathers in one place all the key words, topics, proper names, and critical terminology of feminist literary theory. Emphasis throughout is on usage in the United States and Great Britain since the l970s. Each entry is accompanied by a bibliography that is a point of departure for further research. A key advantage of this Encyclopedia is that it amasses bibliographic references for so many important and often-cited works within a single volume. Instructors especially will find this information invaluable in the preparation of course material. Special FeaturesOffers precise contemporary definitions of all important critical terms * Summarizes the salient ideas of key literary critics * Overviews cover major theoretical issues * Entries on periods and fields survey feminist contributions * Emphasizes terminology that has evolved since the l970s * Indexes proper names, subjects, key words, and related topics

This book examines archetypal motifs related to aspects of human relationships in contemporary Irish women's short stories from the late 1960s to the present. These relationships examined embrace not only relationships between men and women, as married couples and lovers, but also women to women relationships as mothers, daughters, sisters or lovers. This book has uncovered certain recurrent motifs which may be construed as archetypal and are employed as a narrative device to express a certain level of feminist awareness by Irish female writers in their stories against the backdrop of Irish feminism emerged in the late 1960s. This feminist aspect of Irish women's stories appears to address the paradoxes of patriarchal ideology underlying male domination in male/female courtship and marriages, the conflict between patriarchally loyal mothers and rebellious daughters, powerless, but rival, female siblings and peers competing for limited resources and male attention under the Father's law. Motifs of resistance and subversion serve in these stories as metaphors unveiling female protests against an ideology which defines and confines women in the Irish patriarchal context. This book demonstrates a process of transition during which Irish female writers progress from the depiction of women who struggle and fight against unfairness and distortion within an ‘androcentric’ culture to a new direction in which such writers describe a situation where women recognise the internalisation of the ‘false consciousness’ of patriarchy and, out of this recognition, may be eventually able to develop further their sense of self and individuality. The archetypal motifs in Irish women's stories also illustrate a kind of continuity of an ancient female archetype of female rebellious powers which in female literary imagination never ceases to resurface in the face of patriarchal suppression.

This study posits that the narrative of sibling love as a culturally significant tradition in nineteenth-century American fiction. Ultimately, Emily E. VanDette suggests that these novels contribute to historical conversations about affiliation in such tumultuous contexts as sectional divisions, slavery debates, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.