In Subject to Negotiation, Elaine Neil Orr proposes negotiation as both a state of consciousness and a significant movement for women writers as well as feminist critics. Challenging the "subversive" model of feminist criticism, she argues for the importance of negotiation for feminist practice within a plurality of critical positions and identities.

Without claiming the final word - indeed calling for more words on the subject - Orr sketches an empirical method for a negotiating feminist criticism and then in successive chapters demonstrates the method at work.