|In the Classroom or In Chick Lit: The New Edited by Suzanne
Ferris and Mallory Young. Routledge Publishing, 2005. 288 pages.
Trade Paperback. $26.95. Reviewed by Jessica Lynice Hooten.
While most academics may not glance twice at “chick lit,” a few
have come together to show why chick lit should receive literary
and scholarly attention. Editors Suzanne Ferriss, an English
professor at Nova Southeastern University, and Mallory Young, a
professor of English and French at Tarleton State University,
have compiled fifteen essays from a range of professional
academics who (with one exception) argue for the value of
studying chick lit because of its sociological implications for
women and its relationship in literary history to novels such as
Pride and Prejudice. In the opening essay, Cris Mazza explains
her creation of the term “chick lit” for the title of her post-
feminist fiction anthology. Published in 1995, the book draws
together twenty-two stories by unknown female writers of
fiction, which all deal with the