Differencing the Canon: Feminist Desire and the Writing of Arts Histories

In this major book, Griselda Pollock engages boldly in the culture wars over `what is the canon?` and `what difference can feminism make?` Do we simply reject the all-male line-up and satisfy our need for ideal egos with an all women litany of artistic heroines? Or is the question a chance to resist the phallocentric binary and allow the ambiguities and complexities of desire – subjectivity and sexuality – to shape the readings of art that constantly displace the present gender demarcations?