Ten contributions, presented by Sarnecki (French and gender studies, Lawrence U.) and O'Sickey (German and women's studies, State of New York at Binghamton) critically examine aspects of how the writer Yourcenar treated issues of the self, desire, and the other in her fictions. Each essay, says Sarnecki, "ventures beyond traditional readings of Yourcenar's complex texts, pushing against the boundaries of interpretation that the Belgian-born writer carefully established." Among the topics are Yourcenar's "matricide" of not allowing her mother subjectivity in her autobiography, her use of long prefaces to close off unwanted readings of her texts, and the sexual politics of the "fascist ego-construction" of her narrator in the 1939 novel Coup de grâce. Distributed by Associated University Presses. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR