Sarah Waters and Contemporary Feminisms presents ten readings of Sarah Waterss fictions published to date in relation to feminism and contemporary feminist theory. The analysis offered in the collection investigates how Waters engages with recent debates on women and gender and how her writings reflect the different concerns of contemporary feminist theories. In particular, the collection includes new and innovative readings of how Waterss novels address issues of patriarchy, female confinement, madness and misogyny, exploitation and oppression, repression and subordination, abortion, marriage and spinsterhood alongside passionate portrayals of female agency, desire, aesthetics, female sexual expression, and, of course, lesbianism.

Adele Jones tutors in Englishat Swansea University, UK. Her research focuses on feminist theory(particularly psychoanalysis), space, place, gender and sexuality in contemporary literature. 

Claire OCallaghanteaches English at Brunel University, UK, and her researchfocuses on gender and sexuality in contemporaryliterature and culture, feminist theory, and neo-Victorianism.

Introduction; Adele Jones and Claire OCallaghan.-Part I. Feminist Foremothers.- 1. Teasing (Out) a New Generation;Lucie Armitt.- 2. Quick and Queer; Kathryn Simpson.- 3. Accompanied by Ghosts; Natasha Alden.-Part II. Second Wave Hauntings.- 4. Anxious Affinities; Jessica Gildersleeve.- 5. The Feminist Gothic in The Little Stranger;Gina Wisker.- 6. The Feminist Politics of Textuality; Adele Jones.- 7. Better a prison than a madhouse!; Mari Hughes-Edwards.-Part III. Beyond the Second Wave.- 8. Written on the Body; Helen Davies.- 9. My dress is not a yes; Louisa Yates.- 10. Grisley L business; Claire OCallaghan;- Afterword. Sarah Waters and the Future of Feminisms; Adele Jones and Claire OCallaghan.