The Madwoman in the Attic : The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, published in 1979, examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. Authors Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar draw their title from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Charles Dickens is still one of the best known English writers of any era. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Dr. Sandra M. Gilbert (born 1936), Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, is an influential Literary critic and Poet who has published widely in the fields of Feminist literary criticism, Feminist theory, and Psychoanlytic Criticism. ... Dr. Susan Gubar is a Distinguished Professor of English and Womens Studies. ... Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The text specifically examines Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mary Shelley Mary Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature. ... Portrait by her brother Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, which is now an acknowledged classic of English literature. ... George Eliot Mary Ann Evans, better known by the pen name George Eliot (22 November 1819 - 22 December 1880), was an English novelist. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Gilbert and Gubar examine the notion that women writers of the 19th Century were essentially "madwomen" because of the restrictive gender categories enforced upon them both privately and professionally. In their re-examination of these writers, they argue that madness often became a metaphor for suppressed female revolt and anger. They write that the madwoman "is usually in some sense that author's double, an image of her own anxiety and rage." Gilbert and Gubar argue against many popular, explicitly phallocentric literary theories popular at the time. They especially argue against conservative literary critic Harold Bloom's theory of Oedipal poetics, proclaiming that the relationship he describes does not hold true for female authors. Harold Bloom, Literary Critic Dr. Harold Bloom (born July 11, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... The Oedipus complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, who was inspired by Carl Jung (he described the concept and coined the term Complex), to explain the maturation of the infant through identification with the father and desire for the mother. ...

Over 700 pages long, the work is a landmark in feminist literary criticism. While some would argue that it has become outdated, or that the metaphoric framework outlined by Gilbert and Gubar is decidedly limiting, it nonetheless remains an important and still influential, if not foundational feminist work.

Originally published in 1979, the book is now in its second edition (2000), the first from Yale University and second from Yale Nota Bene press. Yale can refer to an educational institution: Yale University, one of the United States oldest universities. ...

Gilbert and Gubar continue to write criticism together, examining Shakespeare and Modernist writing, among other topics. William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

References

"Literature After Feminism" Rita Felski ISBN 0-226-24115-7