From the Shelves of Isis

Rediscovering the Muses

Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music edited by Susan Cook and Judy S. Tson

In this groundbreaking volume, 10 of the best known scholars in the newly emerging field of feminist musicology explore how gender has helped shape genres and works of music and how music has contributed to prevailing notions of gender. Although most of the contributors •define themselves as musicologists, many of their theoretical perspectives show the influence of an ethnomusicology that is enriched with the perspectives of women's history and feminist literary criticism and methodology.

The musical subjects themselves come mainly from Europe and North America They include concert music, both instrumental and vocal, and the vernacular genres of ballads, salon music and contemporary African-American rap.

The essays raise issues not only of gender but also of race and class, moving among musical practices of the courtly ruling class and the elite discourse of the 20th century modernist movements to practices surrounding marginal girls in renaissance Venice and the largely white middle class experiences of magazine music and balladry.

The tide refers to Cecilia, a 15th century woman and Christian martyr regarded as the patron saint of music. (USA: The Board of Trustee of the University of Illinois. 1994. 241p. RN LIT 02253.00B)

Rediscovering the Muses: Women's Musical Traditions, edited by Kimberly Marshall

This pioneering collection of essays restores to history the significant contributions made by women musicians. It examines non-Western as well as Western cultures in a wide-ranging exploration of female musical activity—from purely oral works to precisely notated compositions. Musicologists, ethnographers, classicists, and historians describe the lost musical traditions of ancient Israel and Egypt, the Australian Aborigines, Central Javanese wayang, Byzanthium, and Europe to the 17th century. Many of the essays are richly documented, with pictorial descriptions, written accounts, and archived records. (USA: Northeastern University Press, 1993. 304p. RN UT 02350.00B)

Writing Lives; Feminist Biography and Autobiography, edited by Susan Magarey, Caroline Guerin and Paula Hamilton

In 1990 Antonia S. Byatt won the Booker prize for fiction for a work that is, at least partly, a satire on the subject of the articles collected here: the pursuit of knowledge about the

meaning of an individual life— biography, autobiography, life-writing. Byatt's novel, called Possession, depicts two kinds of possession. One is an intense romantic relationship between two 19th century writers and the other is the shared obsession of finding out about that relationship developed by two late 20th century literary critics. Neither of the critics embarks particularly enthusiastically upon what Hazel Rowley, in this collection, calls "a quest biography." Early in the plot, one of them says, "I'm a textual scholar. I'd rather deplore the modem feminist attitude to private lives." Yet the search overtakes them, as consumingly and disruptively as passionate love overtakes the subjects they pursue through the politics of record-preservation. One of them feels as though he is being "urged on by some violent emotion of curiosity— not greed, curiosity, more fundamental even than sex, the desire for knowledge."

Most of the articles presented here were, in earlier manifestations, offered as papers to the Conference on Australian Feminist Biography and Autobiography that was organised by the Research Centre for Women's Studies at Adelaide University, in conjunction with the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Technology in Sydney in 1989. (Australia: Australian Feminist Studies, 1992. 169 p. RN LIT 00296.00B)

The Necessity of Craft: Development and Women's Craft Practices in the Asia-Pacific Region, edited by Loma Kaino

Sixteen writers from Asia and the Pacific examine the complex social and cultural issues surrounding the general decline in women's traditional craft practices and the appropriations of these crafts into a more commodified form of production. They address these issues through a diverse range of women's craft practices: carpet-making in refugee camps; weaving in Thailand, the Philippines, Australia and Tonga; scroll-making and clay modeling in India; kueh-making in Singapore; dough sculpture in China; and a range of crafts in Indonesian cooperatives. (Australia: University of Western Australia Press, 1995. 185 p. RN CUL 02338.00B)

Feminist Criticism

Feminist Theory and the Study of Folklore, edited by Susan Hollis Tower, Linda Pershing and M. Jane Young

Taking a performance-centered perspective on folklore, the contributors to this volume challenge patriarchal assumptions of the past and rethink old topics from a feminist perspective while opening new areas of research. The book covers girls' games, political cartoons, quilting, Pentecostal preachers, daily housework, Egyptian goddesses, tall tales and birth. This is a valuable resource for scholars and other interested readers. (USA: The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 1993. 414p. RN LIT 02264.00B)

Out of Bounds: Male Writers and Gender(ed) Criticism, edited by Laura Claridge and Elizabeth Langland

Until recently, "masculinity" and its impact on literary production and reception have received scant attention in the field of literary criticism. Although critics certainly have been interested in examining gender, they have tended to be far more concerned with the "feminine" side of the equation than with the "masculine." This book is an attempt to redress that imbalance.

Positing that patriarchy victimizes men as well as women, the 15 original essays in Out of Bounds explore how certain male writers from the American and British canon have responded to the confines of the masculine code. The contributors apply a wide range of critical approaches and probe the gendered perspective in a variety of telling ways. (USA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1990. 344p. RN LIT 01952.00B)

Feminist Readings, Feminists Reading, edited by Sara Mills, Lynne Pearce, Sue Spaull and Elaine Millard

This wide ranging textbook approaches a broad spectrum of feminist literacy theories in a new and engaging way, giving practical

demonstrations of how a reader can engage with a particular theory when faced with a text to analyse. The writers show that there is a whole range of different options available to the literary critic who identifies herself as feminist. There are chapters on sexual politics, authentic realism, gynocritics, marxist feminist criticism, biological criticism and French criticism. The texts under consideration include Tess of the d'Urbevilles and Wuthering Heights as well as works by Jean Rhys, Angela Carter and Charlotte Gilman.

A comprehensive bibliography and a clear Glossary of Terms make this doubly useful. (UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf 1989. 268p. RN CUL 01191.00B)

Woman, Native, Other: Writing Post-Coloniality and Feminism by Trinh T Minh-ha

Trinh Minh-ha examines the post-colonial process of displacement —cultural hybridization and decentered realities, fragmented selves and multiple identities, marginal voices and languages of rupture. Working at the intersection of several fields—women's studies, anthropology, critical cultural studies, literary criticism, and feminist theory—she juxtaposes numerous prevailing contemporary discourses in a form that questions the (male-is-norm) literary and theoretical establishment. She discusses questions of language and writing in relation to the notions of ethnicity and femininity; of identity, authenticity, and difference; of commitment as to the function and role of the woman writer; and of storytelling as one of the oldest forms of building historical consciousness and as a continuing process of integrating feminism and women's everyday life. (USA: Indiana University Press, 1989. 173p. RN IDE 01864.00B)

Sistahood

The Lesbian Heresy: A Feminist Perspective on the Lesbian Sexual Revolution by Sheila Jeffreys

Lesbian feminists have transformed lesbianism from a stigmatized sexual practice into a political practice that posed a challenge to male supremacy and its basic institution of heterosexuality. And now, lesbians are on the offensive again. This time, towards turning the pain of lesbian oppression into the source of sexual pleasure.

In the Lesbian Heresy, Sheila Jeffreys charts and condemns the patriarchal practices in the currently fashionable and commercially lucrative lesbian sexual scene, and argues for the rebuilding of a sexuality that is positive and egalitarian. (UK: The Women's Press Ltd., 1994. 262p. RN IDE 02176.00B)

Feminist Nightmares/ Women at Odds: Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood, edited by Susan Ostrov Weisser and Jennifer Fleischner

Gone are the days when feminism translated simply into the advocacy of equality for women. Women's interests are not edways aligned. Race, class and sexuality complicated the equation. In recent years, feminist ideologies have become increasingly diverse. Today, one feminist's most eirdent political opponent can very well be another feminist.

Women at Odds examines the social, political and psychological ramifications of women's oppression, as evidenced in a range of texts, from women's anti-slavery writing to women's anti-abortion writing, from mother-daughter incest stories to maternal surrogacy narratives, from the Bible to the popular romance novels, from Jane Austen to Alice Walker. (USA: New York University Press, 1994. 405p. RN IDE 02186.00B)

Daughters of the Pacific by Zohl de Ishtar

Zohl de Ishtar traveled the Pacific during 1986-87 on behalf of the group Women Working for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific and interviewed women from many Pacific nations. Following up with extensive research, de Ishtar has written an impressive book that gives voice to Pacific women and the strengths there are in these underknown cultures. The nuclear industry, tourism, dumping of waste and the pollution of the oceans all carry a huge price for these islands, on the rim of the world and of everyone else's imaginations. (Australia: Spinifex, 1994. 2a2p. RN CUL 02237.00B)

Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future, edited by Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda

Over the past 20 years, women's status in Japanese society has changed markedly. Yet most Westerners think of Japanese women as submissive wives of their hardworking, successful corporate husbands. Japanese women make visible for the first time a new view of a changing society through their own perspective and words. Chronicling the revolution for women in education, work, family, religion, politics and culture over the past one hundred years, these essays describe the diverse forces at work in both helping and hindering women's struggles for equality and in changing men's lives as well.

Complete with the politics of key figures in the early feminist movements and in politics as well as up-to-date statistics on women in education and work, Japanese Women is a thorough volume on the history, culture, politics and everyday lives of women in Japan. (USA: The Feminist Press, 1995. 422 p. RN SOC 02291.00B)

Women in Islam

The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World by Nawal El Saadawi

The power of this book has not diminished even after almost 20 years since it first came out. This disturbing account of one person's growing up into womanhood in the Islamic world. The author goes over a host of topics—from sexual aggression against female children and the circumcision of young girls, to prostitution, sexual relationships, marriage and divorce. She relates women's position in the Middle East to the struggles between the left and right in Islam, and shows how the political priorities of Western and Third World women differ. (UK: Zed Books Ltd., 1980. 212p. RN LIT 01961.00B)

Sex Crime in the Islamic Context: Rape, Class and Gender in Pakistan by Afiya Shehrbaro Zia

Based on an academic thesis, the author analyzes the domestication of women and the control of their sexuality through legal means: the use of the Zina laws in Pakistan. Zia reviews the historical context of Islamic laws on sexuality and points out how these are being used against women today. She also looks at how media strengthens this oppression though its portrayal of women and its news coverage of crimes against women.

Highlighted in this short but daring book is how fundamentalist groups create obstacles to laws designed to protect women. Finally, Zia looks at how the women's movement in Pakistan is handling the issues of sex and media and points out both its strengths and weaknesses. (Pakistan: ASR Publications, 1994. 80p. RN VAW 02347.00B)

Sharia' Law and Modern Nation-State: A Malaysian Symposium, edited by Norani Othman

As pressures mount in Malaysia and other predominantly Muslim societies for the implementation of forms and understandings of Islamic law that date back to the early centuries of Islamic civilization, the need to foster an enlightened and contemporary understanding of enduring Qur'anic imperatives is both necessary and urgent. The articles in this book are made up of papers presented at the Sisters in Islam's Symposium on the Modem Nation-State.

How should an Islamic state be run? How can modern-day Islamic people committed to both their religious heritage and to a vision of progress for its inheritors, interpret the essentials of the Medinan model? How are they to understand and realize the Qur'anic ideals of equality, justice and political sovereignty of the umma? These are the crucial questions tackled during the symposium and in the articles in this book. (Malaysia: Sisters in Islam, 1994. 160p. RN LAW 02348.00B)

Women and the Environment

Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development: Towards a Theoretical Synthesis by Rosi Braidotti, Ewa Charkiewics, Sabine Hausler and Saskia Wieringa

There is a widespread perception that the development process is in a state of multiple crisis. While the notion of sustainable development is supposed to address adequately its environmental dimensions, there is still no agreed framework relating women to this new perspective. This book is an attempt to present and disentangle the various positions put forward by major actors and to clarify the political and theoretical issues that are at stake in the debates on women, the environment and sustainable development.

Among the current critiques of the Western model of development which the authors review are the feminist analysis of Science itself and the power relations inherent in the production of knowledge; of Women, Environment and Development or WED; of Alternative Development; of Environmental Reformism; and of Deep Ecology, Social Ecology and Eco-feminism. In traversing this important landscape of ideas, the authors show how they criticise the dominant development model at the various levels of epistemology, theory and policy. They forward their own ideas on the basic elements they consider necessary in constructing a paradigmatic shift— emphasising such values as holism, mutuality, justice, autonomy, self-reliance, sustainability and peace (UK: Zed Books Ltd., 1994. 220p. RN DEV 01809.00B)

Feminist Perspectives on Sustainable Development by Wendy Harcourt

This collection captures the vitality and urgency of the feminists' responses to the environment and development debate. The authors-researchers, activists and policy-makers from the North and South offer new ways of challenging the present dominant knowledge-systems and development institutions, and discuss the difficulties that women in the margins of the development process face.

Contributions on resource management, power, knowledge production, culture, development institutions and politics, health and economics, show how gender relations are not simply a footnote to our understanding of history and societies, but are central to the development discourse. In so doing, they suggest that diversity itself is necessary to build new paradigms of development upon gender equity, secure livelihoods, ecological sustainability and political participation. (UK: Zed Books Ltd., 1994. 255p. RN DEV 01794.00B)

Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health and Development Worldwide, edited by Vandana Shiva

As speed-driven corporations and governments pollute the earth, misuse technology and destroy the lives of the poor and disenfranchised, women throughout the world are successfully challenging and reversing this trend.

Close to Home chronicles these women-led struggles for truly sustainable community development. The women featured in this book battle toxic wastes, low-level radiation, and biotechnology. While tracing the links between mega-projects and environmental destruction they document resounding victories against such imposing foes as Union Carbide and several governments. (USA: New Society Publishers, 1994. 170p. RNENV 02252.00B)

Working Women

As Women, As Workers: A Cartoon Book for Asian Workers and Organizers, text by Cheung Choi Wan; illustrations by Tranvin Jattidgarak

Women work in all kinds of places, doing all kinds of work. However, women's work and a woman's status as a worker sire rarely recognized in official statistics. She is often excluded from jobs in which men dominate. She does not earn the same wages or enjoy the same benefits received by men workers doing the same job. She has no opportunity for promotion because she is a woman.

Through the medium of cartoon illustrations, the status of Asian women workers in different fields are presented. Organized as a source book for educators and labor organizers, there are helpful guides for using the stories and materials for consciousness-reusing purposes. This is an important addition to the tool box of women organizers and popular educators. (Hong Kong: Committee for Asian Workers, 1994. 63p. RN ECO 01936.00B)

Capturing Complexity: An Interdisciplinary Look at Women, Households and Development, edited by Kathleen Cloud, Romy Borooah, et.al.

While there is a considerable and growing body of literature concerning the role of women in social and economic development, appropriate research methods have yet to be developed to fully encompass the multiple dimensions of women's productive and reproductive activities as individuals and as members of households. This volume is a major step in improving the quality and quantity of data on women. 

Arguing that concrete development problems know no disciplinary boundaries, the papers in this volume promote an integrated, interdisciplinary and problem centered approach to development research. The contributors illustrate that issues such as fertility choices, women's productivity in agriculture, and the trade-offs that they make between childcare and work outside the home require that researcher consider a multitude of cross-cutting factors while developing research designs. (India: Sage Publications Ltd., 1994. 324p. RN ECO 01822.00B) 

Of Mothers and Daughters 

Daughters of Feminists by Rose L. Glickman 

Filled with personal anecdotes that will engage mothers, daughters and anyone concerned with the progress of feminism in today's social climate. Daughters of Feminists explores the experiences of women directly influenced by mothers who worked towards equality and the transformation of the home, the workplace and the world at large.

Rose L. Glickman, a feminist historian and mother, interviewed 50 women between the ages 18 and 35 who come from varied ethnic backgrounds and family structures to find out where they stand on issues central to their mothers's feminist perspectives: work, family life, friendship, sexuality, self-image, public and private roles, feminism and racism, and even the word feminist itself. Their candid, thought-provoking, often surprising responses reveal the complexities behind media generalizations about the "post-feminist" generation. (USA: St. Martin's Press, 1993. 192p.RNFAM 02239.00B) 

Motherhood and Modernity: An Investigation into the Rational Dimension of Mothering by Christine Everingham

Christine Everingham presents an innovative analysis linking motherhood to broader sociological debates on modernity, rationality and the individual. Current models of mothering are based on the assumption that infants have biologically determined "needs" that mothers learn to recognize and meet in socially approved ways. Everingham critiques this and instead presents an alternative model of nurturing that locates mothers as subjects, actively constructing the perspective of their child while asserting their own needs and interests in a particular socio-cultured context.

A well-handled mix of theoretical and ethnographic materials plus a focused review of contemporary discussions of rationality and the self, mothering and morality make this book an engaging read. (UK: Open University press, 1994. 156 p. RN FAM 02240.OOB)

Sexuality and Spirituality

The Bridge to Wholeness: A Feminine Alternative to the Hero Myth, edited by Jean Benedict Raffa  

Throughout history there have been many stories about the journeys of heroes. These fairy tales, myths, and other literary works have shown how male heroes strive to become their true selves. They do this by conquering cruel enemies, enduring difficult trials of strength or slaying terrible dragons. The reward for all this hard work is relationship with the feminine: the hand of the princess or a return to the waiting wife. And this is where the story ends. 

When a womein appears in a hero myth, her work is done for the SEike of relationship. She may be a helper, a witch, a victim, a prophet, a seductress or a reward for the hero, but she is almost never someone flowering as an individual. According to most traditional mythology, a man's task is individuation, or becoming

differentiated from everyone else by proving himself in personally fulfilling work in the physical world. If he succeeds, his reward is a return to the feminine. The combination of these two accomplishments (developing his individuality and achieving an intimate relationship with the feminine) allows him to become what he was intended to be and so live out his destiny. In religious language, this goal is equated with entering the kingdom of God. In psychological language, it is called wholeness, and the journey towards it is what this book is about. (USA: Lura Media, Inc.,  1992. 205p. RN SEX 01816.00B) 

Nobody Owns Me: A Celibate Woman Discovers Sexual Power by Francis B. Rothluebber

With fierce tenderness and fearless intimacy, Francis Rothluebber charts a celibate woman's mid-life sexual initiation. Written in the form of a private journal, this book documents a pivotal year in the life of "Marilyn," a woman living in a religious community.... [as she] learns how to awaken the sacred fire living in | her body. (USA: Lura Media, Inc., 1994. 125p. RN SEX 02356.00B)

Journey of the Priestess by Asia Shepsut 

The issue of female priests has now moved to the forefront of public debate within the Christian Church. Yet many influential women working outside orthodox religions are already operating as priestesses, often at a very high level. Journey of the Priestess traces the remains of a submerged tradition of priestesses, whose characteristics have remained constant for millennia. (UK: The Aquarian Press, 1993. 251 p. RN REL 02244.00B) 

Barbara G. Walker, Back-to-Back 

The Women's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects.

Symbolism is a slippery subject. Any one symbol may have hundreds of interpretations, according to differing beliefs of people who interpret it. Symbols now associated with orthodox religions originally evolved from very different contexts in the prepatriarchal past, like the crescent moon of intensely male-oriented Islam, which descended from the female-oriented worship of the Moon Mother in archaic Arabia.

Barbara Walker's dictionary provides a fascinating tour of the history and mythology of some seven hundred woman-related symbols: from round and oval motifs, sacred and secular objects, deities' signs, ritual signs and supernaturals to symbols inspired by body parts, birds, plants, minerals, stones, shells and more. (USA: Harper San Francisco, 1988. 563p. RN REF 02250.00B)

The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets 

Do you know where the legend of a cat's nine lives comes from? Why "mama" is a word understood in nearly all languages? How the custom of kissing began? Whether there really was a female pope? Why Cinderella's glass slipper was so important to the Prince?

The answers to these and countless other intriguing questions are given in this compulsively readable, feminist encyclopedia. Twenty-five years in preparation, this unique, comprehensive sourcebook focuses on mythology, anthropology, religion, and sexuality to uncover precisely what other encyclopedias leave out or misrepresent. The Woman's Encyclopedia presents the fascinating stories behind word origins, legends, superstitions, and customs. A browser's delight and an indispensable resource, it offers 1,350 entries on magic, witchcraft, fairies, elves, giants, goddesses, gods, and psychological anomalies such as demonic possession; the mystical meanings of sun, moon, earth, sea, time and space; ideas of the soul, reincarnation, creation and doomsday; ancient and modern attitudes toward sex, prostitution, romance, rape, warfare, death and sin, and much, much more. Tracing these concepts to their prepatriarchal origins, Barbara G. Walker explores the hidden footprints of history in addition to the valuable materials recovered by archaeologists, orientalists, and other scholars. (USA: Harper San Francisco, 1983. 1124p. RN REF 02373.00B) 

Classics

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer

Classic text in modem western feminism. The Female Eunuch, with its chapter titles "Body," "Soul," "Love," and "Hate," was one of the first to consider women as a subject of discourse. Many of what today's feminists consider as common sense were first argued out in Greer's book. (UK: Paladin, 1971. 354p. RN IDE 02156.00B) 

Gyn/Ecology: The Meta Ethics of Radical Feminism by Mary Daly 

Gyn/Ecology is a book unlike any other. It invites us to acknowledge without forgiveness or collusion those forces which have shaped our lives. The ritualised mutilation, burning, mind-binding and torture of millions of women in China, India, Africa, and Europe is mercilessly recounted here. 

In its total lack of inhibition by patriarchal forms and its sombre declaration of what has previously been kept hidden, Gyn/ Ecology is a work of revolution. (UK: The Women's Press Limited, 1978. 485p. RNIDE 02256.00B)