Published in 1989, Speaking of Gender gathers essays from a moment when feminist criticism was moving beyond the recovery of neglected women writers towards something a bit more broad. 

Showalter’s selection brings together critics including Patricia Parker, Barbara Johnson, Valerie Smith, Susan Stanford Friedman and Peter Schwenger, moving across childbirth metaphors, masculinity, race, androgyny, sexuality and the gendered assumptions buried inside supposedly neutral acts of reading. 

The collection is especially useful as a snapshot of feminist literary theory before “gender studies” settled into an institutional category of its own. Some arguments now feel historically situated—particularly where sex and gender remain more binary than later theory would permit—but the central method remains alive: treat gender not as a theme added to literature, but as something shaping its language, metaphors and claims to authority. A strong book for readers interested in feminist criticism, embodiment and the intellectual history of literary studies. 

First edition. Routledge, 1989 paperback. Good condition with moderate cover rubbing, edge and corner wear, and occasional pencil marks to the margins.