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This chapter defines ‘the feminist novel’ as a novel produced within an awareness of contemporary feminist debates, but by no means promoting any party line. It focuses on three particular concerns that have resonated throughout the post-1968 novel — the desire to become ‘free women’, the rewriting of culture and history, and the interest in female relationships. The chapter shows that, though the women of the feminist novel are not ‘free’, they certainly test the boundaries of proper femininity. In addition, feminist rewriting of cultural and literary narratives has both reconceptualized ‘woman’ and her history and led to experimentation with different modes, narrative structures, and voices. And finally, alongside uncertainties about new modes of social relation, the feminist novel continues to express hopefulness.

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