Susan Gubar
Susan Gubar is an influential American feminist literary critic, born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. She has been a faculty member at Indiana University at Bloomington since 1973 and is best known for her collaborative work with fellow scholar Sandra M. Gilbert. Together, they have significantly shaped feminist literary criticism, producing seminal works such as *The Madwoman in the Attic* and the multi-volume *No Man's Land*, which explore the complexities of women writers' identities and their cultural contexts. Gubar's contributions extend beyond literary criticism; she has authored various solo nonfiction works, including her memoir, *Memoir of a Debulked Woman*, which discusses her battle with ovarian cancer and advocates for better research and diagnosis of the disease. Her writing reflects the broader women's movement, emphasizing the importance of solidarity among women in both literature and society. In recognition of their impactful work, Gubar and Gilbert were named Women of the Year by *Ms. magazine* in 1985. Gubar continues to write and engage with feminist literary critiques, demonstrating a commitment to exploring and redefining women's roles in literature and culture.
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Subject Terms
Susan Gubar
- Born: November 30, 1944
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
Author Profile
Susan David Gubar was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944. She studied at City College of New York, the University of Michigan, and the University of Iowa. She has taught at Indiana University at Bloomington since 1973. Gubar began collaborating with Sandra M. Gilbert on feminist literary criticism in the mid-1970s while both taught at Indiana University. Each had previously published extensively, but their discussions led them to new discoveries about literature. The excitement generated by their joint exploration of the subject matter is evident throughout the volumes they have produced as a team, which include The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination (1979); Shakespeare’s Sisters: Feminist Essays on Women Poets (editors, 1979); the three-volume No Man’s Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century, 1988–1994 (1988–94); The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English (editors, 1985); The Female Imagination and the Modernist Aesthetic (editors, 1986); Masterpiece Theatre: An Academic Melodrama (1995); and Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader (2007). In 2012, Gubar published Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer about her 2008 battle with ovarian cancer. In 2018, Gubar published Late-Life Love, and in 2021, she released Still Mad: American Women Writers and Feminist Imagination, once again coauthored with Gilbert.
After Gilbert left Indiana in 1975, she and Gubar continued working together through phone calls and extensive travel. The focus in their writing on women writers’ sense of identity reflects the women’s movement’s attempts to redefine women’s place in society. Gilbert and Gubar’s persuasive arguments that literary works reflect the time and culture in which they are written, as well as the gender of the author, helped to revolutionize literary criticism. Many previous critical schools treated works of literature as timeless monuments to human greatness. Gilbert and Gubar’s collaborative method embodies the ideal of solidarity between women, which is central to the women’s movement. In 1985 Ms. magazine designated both scholars Woman of the Year in honor of The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
Gubar's solo nonfiction works range from criticism to memoir and include Critical Condition: Feminism at the Turn of the Century (2000); Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture (2000); Poetry after Auschwitz: Remembering What One Never Knew (2003); Rooms of Our Own (2006); and Judas: A Biography (2008). In 2012 Gubar published Memoir of a Debulked Woman, a memoir about her experience as a patient with advanced ovarian cancer. The book advocates for increased research and more timely diagnosis of the often fatal disease. Gubar continued writing books well into the twenty-first century and revisited her feminist literary critiques in the early 2020s, once again teaming up with Gilbert to publish another work of feminist literary criticism.
Bibliography
Auerbach, Nina. Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Cain, William E., ed. Making Feminist History: The Literary Scholarship of Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: Garland, 1994.
Eagleton, Mary, ed. Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader. 2d ed. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 1996.
Gubar, Susan. “Susan Gubar on Writing Her Way Through Ovarian Cancer.” Interview by Sally Errico. New Yorker 21 June 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Jacobus, Mary. Review of The Madwoman in the Attic, by Susan D. Gubar and Sandra Gilbert. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 6, no. 3 (1981).
Moi, Torrill. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London: Methuen, 1985.
Roiphe, Katie. “The Authors of 'The Madwoman in the Attic' Are Back With a New (Angry) Book (Published 2021).” The New York Times, 17 Aug. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/books/review/still-mad-sandra-gilbert-susan-gubar.html. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Wilson, Robin. “Susan Gubar’s Closing Chapters.” Chronicle of Higher Education 27 Apr. 2012: A1–A15. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.