Collaboration in the Feminine.

Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera, edited by Barbara Godard. Second Story Press (720 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2R4)/312 pp./price unavailable (sb). Tessera, a Canadian periodical dedicated to women's writing and theory, was created in the mid-1980s by a female editorial collective. It was intended to promote the exchange of ideas through a system of writing, response and collective debate. Tessera functions today as a rare bilingual forum for both English- and French-speaking writers from all parts of Canada. The journal focuses on feminine "critical writing with difference," writes Gail Scott, one of Tessera's early editors. Indeed, much of the writing in this compilation transgresses genre boundaries, often taking the form of poetry. These texts address issues including the representation of women, the narration of gender, feminist theory, memory and the translation of language both as a practice and an idea.