Elaine Showalter

Elaine Showalter (born January 21, 1941) is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She influenced feminist literary criticism in the United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics, a term describing the study of "women as writers". Showalter has written and edited numerous books and articles focused on a variety of subjects, from feminist literary criticism to fashion, sometimes sparking controversy, especially with her work on illnesses. Showalter has been a television critic for People magazine and a commentator on BBC radio and television. She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. Career Showalter is a specialist in Victorian literature and the fin de siècle (turn of the 19th century). Her most innovative work in this field is in madness and hysteria in literature, specifically in women's writing and in the portrayal of female characters. She is the Avalon Foundation Professor Emerita. Her academic honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship (1981–82). She is also the past-president of the Modern Language Association (MLA).