The Virago Story: Assessing the Impact of a Feminist Publishing Phenomenon

Catherine Riley

Published by Berghahn Books 2018

The Virago Story

Assessing the Impact of a Feminist Publishing Phenomenon

Catherine Riley

Volume 23 in the series Protest, Culture & Society

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785338090

Overview
Contents

About this book

The 1970s witnessed a renaissance in women’s print culture, as feminist presses and bookshops sprang up in the wake of the second-wave women’s movement. At four decades’ remove from that heady era, however, the landscape looks dramatically different, with only one press from the period still active in contemporary publishing: Virago. This engaging history explains how, from modest beginnings, Virago managed to weather epochal transformations in gender politics, literary culture, and the book publishing business. Drawing on original interviews with many of the press's principal figures, it gives a compelling account of Virago’s place in recent women's history while also reflecting on the fraught relationship between activism and commerce.

Author / Editor information

Catherine Riley received her doctorate from Birkbeck College. Her research focuses on trends in gender theory and praxis, particularly as it applies to publishing and social change.

Reviews

“Riley gives excellent detail of the difficulties Virago faced in being at once a radical, political committed feminist enterprise and a successful commercial publisher…Riley’s book serves as a valuable addition to a growing scholarship of this period of British feminism and will provoke some sentimental recognition in any reader who has a treasured pile of green spines on their shelves.” • Cercles

“Riley's book does a terrific job of laying out the context in which Virago first appeared and its transformations over time. Not only does it evocatively capture a historical moment, but it also serves as an important case study in business history, provides a critical intellectual history of feminism, and even alters our understanding of the book itself.” • Jennifer Scanlon, Bowdoin College

“Scholars in the fields of book history, publishing studies, and gender studies will welcome the arrival of this book—an important and long overdue study charting how one of the world’s most established feminist presses not only survived but also found ways to adapt and thrive in a radically restructured political and publishing landscape.” • Kate Eichhorn, The New School

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I 1973–83
Chapter 1 Virago’s Hands-on Brand of Feminism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Chapter 2 Changing the Literary Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
Part II 1983–94
Chapter 3 ‘Alternative, Autonomous, and Viable’ Feminist Publishing and the Mainstream Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Chapter 4 Fragmenting Feminism and Diversifying Women’s Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
Part III 1994–2004
Chapter 5 Working Women and the Changing Face(s) of the Book Industry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Chapter 6 Third Waves and Disconnections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
Part IV 2004–17
Chapter 7 Virago’s Place in the New Millennium’s Literary Marketplace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter 8 Twenty-First-Century Feminism(s) and Virago’s Role for Women’s Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 198
Keywords: Gender Studies and Sexuality; Cultural Studies (General); History: 20th Century to Present

eBook

Published: April 23, 2018
ISBN: 9781785338090