Quest for Identity: What is Gained and Lost on the Way

Abstract

The article is devoted to the investigation of the problem how the main theme of feminist literature, a woman 's search for identity, for her place in the world, and the consequences of this search, unfolds in the novels of contemporary writers Jane Smiley, Jane Hamilton and Margaret Atwood. J. Smiley in her novels maintains that when a woman steps over her feminist fate she gains only loneliness, a lack of perspective and brings misfortune upon her children.