University of Missouri, College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
Though contemporary fiction has evolved significantly alongside the social and political revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there remains the tendency to return to the stigmatized classifications of literature in the past, especially in regards to contemporary female authors. Is a story feminist simply because it has been written by a woman, about a woman, and for a female audience? This used to be the definition of feminist literature, but in the twenty-first century, this broad definition becomes a scarlet letter that can trivialize the work of female authors. Evolution is therefore necessary to a full understanding of these works. I will examine the work and words of my contemporaries to address the stigmas associated with the work of a female author. Through an analysis of my own collection, I hope to prove that there must be more involved in a critique of an author's work than her gender
