The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 2nd ed.

The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 2nd ed.

Like other reference books that are overviews of fields that not only are still being defined but also are changing at record speed, Maggie Humm's The Dictionary of Feminist Theory has the twin goals of providing breadth and depth of coverage of feminist theory in academe. Even a cursory glance at Humm's text, which discusses topics ranging from nineteenth-century abolitionist feminism to the current work of Bonnie Zimmerman, indicates that feminist theory and women's studies are becoming fields in their own right, shrugging off their earlier status as special interest areas within mainstream academic fields and commanding attention as historically, politically, and theoretically challenging areas of inquiry. The multidisciplinary nature of feminist theory makes necessary a multidisciplinary guide to it, and Humm's book does an excellent job of acquainting academic specialists with the significant work outside the bounds of their particular disciplines. Her Dictionary provides an index, complete with reference to particularly important studies, to virtually every topic and buzz word circulating today in feminist discourse.

The balance between breadth and depth, however, sometimes tips in favor of the former, and while no reference book can include extended discussions of everything it indexes, Humm's Dictionary would benefit from more fleshed-out entries of particularly significant topics. Her discussions of literary topics often focus exclusively on recognizable names or leading exponents of movements; the entry on writing of the body, for example, does a fine job outlining Hélène Cixous's contributions to the evolution of écriture féminine as a mode of women's writing but does not mention Luce Irigary, whose work on the connection between the female body and female communication is vital to an understanding of Cixous. The separate entry for Irigary does a fine job of explaining the defining features and metaphors of...