Women and Literature in Britain, 1500–1700

by Edited by Helen Wilcox

• ISBN13: 9780521467773
• ISBN10: 0521467772
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first comprehensive introduction to the works and social contexts of women writers in early modern Britain, a paradoxical period when it was considered unfeminine to write and yet women were the authors of many poems, translations, conduct books, autobiographies, plays, pamphlets and other texts. Leading scholars examine the history of women's role in and access to literary culture, and the work of individual women writers. A unique chronology offers a woman-centered perspective on historical and literary events, and there is a guide to further reading.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xii
A note on references	xiii
Chronology: women and literature in Britain, 1500-1700	xv
Introduction	1	(8)
Helen Wilcox
PART I CONSTRUCTING WOMEN IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN
Humanist education and the Renaissance concept of woman	9	(21)
Hilda L. Smith
Religion and the construction of femininity	30	(26)
Suzanne Trill
Advice for women from mothers and patriarchs	56	(24)
Valerie Wayne
Women reading, reading women	80	(20)
Jacqueline Pearson
Women/ `women' and the stage	100	(17)
Ann Thompson
Feminine modes of knowing and scientific enquiry: Margaret Cavendish's poetry as case study	117	(26)
Bronwen Price
PART II WRITING WOMEN IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN
Renaissance concepts of the `woman writer'	143	(26)
Margaret W. Ferguson
Courtly writing by women	169	(21)
Helen Hackett
Women's poetry in early modern Britain	190	(19)
Elizabeth H. Hageman
Women's writing and the self	209	(25)
Elspeth Graham
The possibilities of prose	234	(33)
Betty S. Travitsky
The first female dramatists	267	(24)
Ros Ballaster
Further reading	291	(4)
Index	295