This collection of essays looks at literary representations of space--physical, psychological, political, and cultural. The book examines the relationship between gender and geography in a broad array of texts and contexts, from the early novel to contemporary Caribbean and Chicana literature. The contributors explore the changing definitions of "woman's place" through such themes as exile and exclusion, property and territoriality, and the body as interface between individual and communal identities. They also show how maps of gender overlap with maps of status.