The second wave of feminist theory has profoundly changed what we read and how we
read. New texts and reclaimed texts have changed the canon so that more people are
included and the ‘dead white male’ is less dominant. There is an increased awareness
and valuing of maternal pedagogies and traditions of women’s writing. Tastes have
developed for colloquial, domestic voices pitched in higher registers and speaking in
other cadences.
It is true that by the time this text is in print, the second wave of feminist theory will
be long over. But it has created something else, something not fully defined yet. An
article on feminist theory and children’s literature written in 2006 would look radically
different from this one—perhaps closer to the wild world of Le Guin’s imaginings.
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