Writing as woman

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to give an historical account of the investigation into difference/s, a preoccupation of second wave feminist and literary theorists from the early 1970's through to the late 1990's, and to show the part these differences play in the theories of authorship and identity. I discuss the search for any quality to be found in textural production which might distinguish the writing of men from that of women. I then examined the new direction this search for difference/s took, when it focused solely on women's identity and authorship, and when a feminist literary and philsophical canon was created in this area. I conclude this thesis with an investigation of theories of autobiography, and show using these theories that not only can each woman have a different voice, but an individual woman can assume multiple identities and thus have multiple voices.