Published in 1986
315 pages
Alicia Suskin Ostriker is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.
What is this book about?
Stealing The Language represents the first comprehensive appraisal of women’s poetry in America and brilliantly defines one of the most exciting and original literary movements of our time.
helpful reviews from readers on goodreads:
Should be required reading for any academic studying feminist literature, or any feminist studying literature or any feminist writer. It’s a map of our heritage as women writers in the United States. –Leah Hedrick
I have to put this book right up there with The Madwoman in the Attic as a classic of feminist criticism. What Gilbert and Gubar did for the novel, Ostriker does for poetry. And since my formal education, back in the dark ages now (and it didn’t get much past the Victorians anyway), was thoroughly steeped in the male canon, I desperately needed the balance Ostriker supplies. Though it is 20 years old, we seem to be in a period of backlash against “confessional” poets like Plath and Sexton, and I still needed to hear what this book has to say. I’d say I wish I’d read it sooner, but I tend to think there’s a karma that guides us to read a book when we need to read it. –Sherry Chandler
