Book: The Penguin Book of International Women's Stories

Kate Figes, editor, The Penguin Book of International Women's Stories (1996).

 Figes' short introduction helps me see how a reading list at the intersection of women's writing and world literature would probably proceed by theme, beginning with childhood experiences (read "THe Reservoir" and "Games at Twilight" next, and return to Jamaica Kincaid), through adolescence and motherhood, widening in political and social content along the way. Class, war, and gender oppression need to be negotiated as personal expressions of artistic minds, and placed under a general rubric of seeking agency -- one that I'm not convinced is female uniquely, though there is probably such a thing as uniquely female experience. A recurring, or even constant, motif will be that of the culture class, as in Alison Lurie's "Fat People" (a related title might be "Out on Main Street" by Shani Mootoo, mentioned by Sucheta Choudhuri at SWCAS last weekend).

Kate, exhibiting her own signs of nation, class and ideology

I didn't see any reviews of this collection, but it's clear from Kate Figes' web site and new blog that she is a British woman spending a lot of time intellectualizing her experiences of coupledom and motherhood. One wishes to bring up the term "navel-gazing" with the kids, and explore along with them what distinguishes the helpful from the selfish.

UPDATE: I did find a notice for the book in the Times Educational Supplement: