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; and, 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.