'A truly wonderful addition to both the scholarly and creative market. This book is not
only groundbreaking in its theoretical propositions, but is also significant in its
contribution to creative practice. The ideas behind the concept of the maternal
journey are rigorous and well argued, and the resulting model for writers and story
creators is a much needed addition to the creative canon. Dr Rogers will find herself
sitting comfortably alongside the likes of Campbell, Vogler, and Murdock with this
book!'
-Associate Professor Craig Batty, author of Movies That Move Us: Screenwriting and
the Power of the Protagonist's Journey.

This extraordinary work seeks to heal the divisions between feminist literary critics in terms of
how they understand madness, the interrupted heroic journey, "empowered (non-biological)
maternalism" and transformation. Rogers brings an enormous erudition to bear on the compelling,
controversial, and unresolved questions about fictional mad women in the attic, in the insane
asylum, and in life, and what relationship they have and might have to both their critics and
readers.
-Phyllis Chesler, author of New York Times bestseller Women and Madness.

In this bold work of third-wave feminist literary criticism, Megan Rogers
argues for a new way forward for fictional protagonists in feminist novels. She asks
provocatively: “When did happy endings become so un-feminist?”

In addition, Megan Rogers has created a new concept — that of the ‘eternal
madwoman’ — and through her close reading of four of the best-loved
mad-woman-in-the-attic novels (The Bell Jar, Wide Sargasso Sea, Surfacing and The
Woman Upstairs) she encourages readers, novelists and critics alike to envisage the
possibility of cathartic “happy endings’” both in literature and in life.

Megan Rogers asks readers, novelists and literary critics to re-evaluate a very
old-fashioned term (one that has been devalued and is now ripe for renovation): the
‘message’ of a novel. Her powerful call to arms is to assert that readers, novelists and

critics could find a use for theory “to better the lives of everyday women”.
Provocatively, Megan Rogers asks: Do we really want our daughters to be told that
that being stuck in an attic in a state of madness and silence is an act of feminist
rebelliousness?

As an alternative Megan Rogers envisages the possibility of a fictional (or a real)
woman (one in pain) undertaking an emancipatory journey, out of ‘stuckness’ and
silence, towards a heroic ascent.

For Megan Rogers, finding the plot means a rejection of the valorisation of the
madwoman in the attic as a rebellious victor. Finding the plot also means finding a
resolution of the eternal madwoman’s dilemma where she is stuck in a “descent
phase” of aloneness, silence and negation. Finding the plot means giving the
madwoman in the attic the (self-)permission to come down the stairs, to no longer be
silenced and to subsequently begin the “ascent phase” into being a “self-realised,
self-loving, self-respecting subject”.
-Antoni Jach is the author of three novels —The Weekly Card Game, The Layers of the
City and Napoleon’s Double — and of the play Waiting for Isabella.