''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' is a

biographical dictionary A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...

about women writers. ''Companion'' was edited by Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. It was published in 1990 by Batsford (now Pavilion Books) in the UK and

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

in the US. It took about ten years to complete and was based mainly on research completed specifically for the project. ''Companion'' includes about 2,700 entries about women writers and associated topics such as

genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

and

literary movements Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

. Only writing in English is covered but the project's geographic scope is wide. Temporally, ''Companion'' covers writers from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

to about 1985. Entries focus on biographical details over literary criticism, seeking to show the lives from which women's writing emerged. The editors included entries on writing not typically considered literary, such as

diaries Diaries may refer to: * the plural of diary *''Diaries: 1971-1976'', a 1981 documentary by Ed Pincus *'' Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years'', a 2006 book by Michael Palin *''OFW Diaries ''OFW Diaries'' is a Philippine television documentary ...

and

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

, in order to counteract received narratives of what literature can be. ''Companion'' emphasizes women's relationships with one another and lists mothers before fathers when describing a subject's parentage. Collaborators on ''Companion'' later created '' Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present'', an online reference source about women's writing published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

Citations

Works cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Feminist Companion to Literature in English 1990 books Yale University Press books Books about women Feminist books Biographical dictionaries of women