Reading Early Modern Women's Writing

by Salzman, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780199261048
• ISBN10: 0199261040
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book contains the first comprehensive account of writing by women from the mid sixteenth century through to 1700. At the same time, it traces the way a representative sample of that writing was published, circulated in manuscript, read, anthologized, reprinted, and discussed from the time it was produced through to the present day. Salzman's study covers an enormous range of women from all areas of early modern society, and it covers examples of the many and varied genres produced by these women, from plays to prophecies, diaries to poems, autobiographies to philosophy. As well as introducing readers to the wealth of material produced by women in the early modern period, this book examines changing responses to what was written, tracing a history of reception and transmission that amounts to a cultural history of changing taste.

Author Biography

Paul Salzman is a Reader in English Literature at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Introduction: 'Were They That Name?': Categorizing Early Modern Women's Writing	p. 1
The Scope of Early Modern Women's Writing	p. 11
Poets High and Low, Visible and Invisible	p. 37
Mary Wroth: From Obscurity to Canonization	p. 60
Anne Clifford: Writing a Family Identity	p. 90
Prophets and Visionaries	p. 109
Margaret Cavendish and Lucy Hutchinson: Authorship and Ownership	p. 135
Saint and Sinner: Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn	p. 176
Conclusion	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 221
Index	p. 239
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