"This collection of fourteen new essays on Gilman's mixed legacy - her vision for a truly humane, egalitarian world alongside her persistent presentation of class, ethnic, and racial stereotypes - underscores the contemporary relevance of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). Gilman enjoyed a worldwide reputation as a writer, lecturer, and socialist, and her prodigious output (novels, stories, poetry, lectures, journalism, theoretical works) stands as a major contribution to modern feminist thought on important, contested economic and social issues. After her death in 1935, she was virtually forgotten. With the revival of the women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s, however, Gilman was "rediscovered," her arguments deemed prescient by late-twentieth-century feminists."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This extraordinary casebook brings together 100 years of critical discussion on the feminist classic "The Yellow Wallpaper, " providing crucial historical background and rich interpretations of this complex and compelling work.

In Wild Unrest, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz offers a vivid portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1880s, drawing new connections between the author's life and work and illuminating the predicament of women then and now. "The Yellow Wall-Paper" captured a woman's harrowing descent into madness and drew on the author's intimate knowledge of mental illness. Like the narrator of her story, Gilman was a victim of what was termed "neurasthenia" or "hysteria"--a "bad case of the nerves." She had faced depressive episodessince adolescence, and with the arrival of marriage and motherhood, they deepened. In 1887 she suffered a severe breakdown and sought the "rest cure" of famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell. Her marriage was a troubled one, and in the years that followed she separated from and ultimately divorced herhusband. It was at this point, however, that Gilman embarked on what would become an influential career as an author, lecturer, and advocate for women's rights. Horowitz draws on a treasure trove of primary sources to illuminate the making of "The Yellow Wall-Paper": Gilman's journals and letters, which closely track her daily life and the reading that most influenced her; the voluminous diaries of her husband, Walter Stetson, which contain verbatimtranscriptions of conversations with and letters from Charlotte; and the published work of S. Weir Mitchell, whose rest cure dominated the treatment of female "hysteria" in late 19th century America. Horowitz argues that these sources ultimately reveal that Gilman's great story emerged more fromemotions rooted in the confinement and tensions of her unhappy marriage than from distress following Mitchell's rest cure. Wild Unrest adds immeasurably to our understanding of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, uncovering both the literary and personal sources behind "The Yellow Wall-Paper."

Although the rediscovery in 1973 of the long-forgotten story "The Yellow Wall-Paper" (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, met an enthusiastic reception, no one expected the enormous impact it would have, resulting in dozens of articles and books, numerous dissertations, dramatizations on stage and in film, and inclusion in college literature anthologies. Not surprisingly, then, the story, often alongside Gilman's second-most-famous work, Herland (1915), is widely taught in a variety of disciplines. This volume addresses the rewards and challenges of teaching these two works and offers a practical and valuable resource for teachers who are new to Gilman as well as for experienced teachers looking for fresh approaches.