Toward a Recognition of Androgyny

New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1982. xxi, 189,v pp; index, bibliographic notes. Or card covers. Minimal edge wear. Opens our eyes to the way androgyny has run from its source in pre-Helenic myth through the literature of the Western world. Brings to light unrecognized manifestations of this ideal from the Gospels; medieval ambiguities of the cult of Mary and the courts of love; the Renaissance with its developing view of a more autonymous human being, culminating in Shakespeare's androgynous vision. Traces the emergence of the woman hero in fiction, making the distinction between the feminist novel and the androgynous novel. The strong women characters of Austen, the Brontes and George Eliot; the heroines of male writers such as DH Lawrence, Henry James.. are all seen as androgynous creations. The writers of the Bloomsbury group are looked at as the exemplification of the androgynous ideal both in their art and their lives.. First Paperback. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 8vo.