Description
Trade ReviewWomen Who Fly is a novel study likely to interest readers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Although this sort of broad-brush cross-cultural and trans-historical overview will always have its pitfalls, it broadens the mind with examples from a rich arrayof contexts and opens the reader up to new possibilities. A valuable source of comparisons, the book will hopefully inspire further, more focused and in-depth studies of women who fly. * Ethan Doyle White, Time and Mind *
Young's cross-cultural, multi-period, multidisciplinary and comparative approach to the evidence for flying women successfully introduces disciplinary specialists to examples of the concept of airborne women within cultures or time periods that they probably would not usually investigate. It is also suitable for a general readership. The many examples of flying women examined in this book persuasively demonstrate that the trope of the aerial female, in various manifestations, is shared across religions and through time. * Caroline Tully, University of Melbourne, Reading Religion *
The strength of Women Who Fly is its broad sweep. Young consults sources that span multiple disciplines[The book] is a good background resource for women's stud-ies projects, literary interpretations, and for an overview of historical representations of women who fly. Students and general readers will find it a baseline for deeper dives into religious and cultural symbols of women. * Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Nova Religio *
[Young's] method is encyclopaedic, [ ... ], and in Women Who Fly she has marshalled a wonderful gallery of flyers - a kind of panangelium - from cultures far and wide. * Marina Warner, London Review of Books *
The book is crammed full of stories about rebellious women who shunned gravity and convention by taking to the skies... The range and variety of material covered is impressive... An engaging and well-illustrated book. * Ann Kennedy Smith, The Times Literary Supplement *
This is in many ways a joy of a book - certainly an unusual joy for an academic feminist book. Without ever resorting to the tedious or impenetrable jargon [...] it delivers a hard-hitting historical analysis in plain, but glowing English ... Every chapter of this book is an eye-opener... * Lynn Pickett, Magonia Review of Books *
[Serinity Young is] a well-trained scholar with a strong interest in feminist takes on folklore and literature. I find the project itself to be quite fascinating and I would urge you to go ahead with the book. I appreciate the ambitious nature of the project, covering as it does myth, folktale, opera, and popular culture, not to mention actual female aviators. I do think the book sounds like it is well worth publishing and it ought to appeal to feminists and folklorists alike." * Alan Dundes, Anthropology and Folklore, University of California, Berkeley *
The book is the only one I know on this theme, and it is a marvelous idea: flying women. The scholarship is sound, the organization clear and simple, and the writing lively and confident. I can't think of anything to add or change in any major way." * Wendy Doniger, History of Religion, University of Chicago *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 - Earth, Sky and Supernatural Women PART I - Supernatural Women Chapter 2 - Winged Goddesses of Sexuality, Death and Immortality Chapter 3 - The Fall of the Valkyries Chapter 4 - Swan Maidens: Captivity and Sexuality Chapter 5 - Angels and Fairies: Male Flight and Contrary Females Chapter 6 - Apsaras: Enabling Male Immortality - Part 1 Chapter 7 - Yoginis and Dakinis: Enabling Male Immortality - Part 2 PART II - Human Women Chapter 8 - Witches and Succubi: Male Sexual Fantasies Chapter 9 - Women Shamans: Fluctuations in Female Spiritual Power Chapter 10 - Flying Mystics - Part I - West Chapter 11 - Flying Mystics, or the Exceptional Woman - Part II - East Chapter 12 - The Aviatrix: Nationalism, Women and Heroism Conclusion The Exceptional Woman Women and War
