Since the publication of her essay "Some Notes on Defining a 'Feminist' Literary Criticism" in the Autumn 1975 issue of Critical Inquiry, Annette Kolodny has set about constructing a coherent theoretical framework for feminist literary-critical practice. With the appearance of subsequent essays, including most notably "Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism" (Feminist Studies, Spring 1980) and "A Map for Rereading: Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts" (New Literary History, Spring 1980), she became established--in Elaine Showalter's words--as "the most sophisticated theorist of feminist interpretation." At the same time, in The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters (1975) and in The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 (1984), Kolodny pioneered the application of feminist criticism to American literary materials and cultural history. Where the first book examines the psychosexual...