Feminist Popular Fiction

MERJA MAKINEN is Principal Lecturer in English Literary Studies at Middlesex University. She has published Female Fetishism: A New Look with Lorraine Gamman, Joyce Cary: A Descriptive Bibliography, and a number of essays on Angela Carter.

An examination of feminist writers' appropriation of a range of popular genres: detective fiction, science fiction, romance and the fairy tale. The author argues that feminists can successfully appropriate all four genres because genres, as cultural productions, have accommodated the cultural changes brought about by second-wave feminism.An examination of feminist writers' appropriation of a range of popular genres: detective fiction, science fiction, romance and the fairy tale. The author argues that feminists can successfully appropriate all four genres because genres, as cultural productions, have accommodated the cultural changes brought about by second-wave feminism. The book provides a history of each of the genres, reinstating women's contributions in those histories, and a comprehensive review of the feminist critical debates on each of the genres.