In our time of gender awareness and de-alienation of fringe groups, Sappho's example looms large. Women deploy her as a weapon in the long-standing fight for gender equality. At the same time, homosexuals point to her poetry as proof of the positivity in same-sex relationships. These days, it seems,

Classical & biblical poetry, Ecstatic, Feminist, Lyrical, Pathos, Rebel

At a time when marriage was society's end-all for women, Jane Austen refused quite a few proposals. In spite of financial need, this country pastor's daughter not only stayed single but wrote about it in her artfully constructed comedies of manners. Her novels show an uncanny aptitude for subtle but

18th century literature, Charming, Clean, Feminist, Pathos, Witty

The first Surrealist filmmaker. The first female French filmmaker. The first female-French-Surrealist filmmaker. Add to this the fact that "Germaine Dulac" was an ardent feminist (some say lesbian, too), and we've got quite a title. Like her Hollywood contemporary Dorothy Arzner, Dulac upheld each pa

Composed, Dreamy, Feminist, French impressionism, Pathos, Surreal

In an Eisenstein film, loose, metaphorical associations displace narrative continuity: images related only by analogy cut up chronological sequences. Physical action is by turns slowed down to a grueling pace and sped up to a frenzy. In every respect, Sergei Eisenstein's films are challenging. And ye

Collage, Constructivist architecture, Epic, Pathos, Pioneering, Political, Soviet montage