The concept of gender continues to be a central issue in literary and cultural studies, with a significance that crosses disciplinary boundaries and provokes lively debate. In this fully revised and updated second edition, David Glover and Cora Kaplan offer a lucid and illuminating introduction to 'gender' and its implications, including: an overview of the critical language and concepts surrounding gender from their historical inception to contemporary debates discussions of the major theorists in the field updated and extended coverage of lesbian and queer theory a new glossary of terms essential to an understanding of the debate on gender in contemporary theory. With its impressive breadth and depth of coverage, this volume offers not only a comprehensive history of this complex term, but also indicates its ongoing presence in literary and cultural theory and the new directions it is taking.