Women's Writing in English: Early Modern England
© 2005
In this introduction to the diversity and scope of the writing by women in England from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Patricia Demers discusses the creative realities of women writers' accomplishments and the cultural conditions under which they wrote.
There were deep suspicions and restrictions surrounding the education of women during this period, and thus the contributions of women to literature, and to the print industry itself, are largely unknown. This wide-ranging examination of the genres of early modern women's writing embraces translation (from Latin, Greek, and French) in the fields of theological discourse, romance and classical tragedy, original meditations and prayers, letters and diaries, poetry, closet drama, advice manuals, and prophecies and polemics. A close study of six major authors – Mary Sidney, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, Lady Mary Wroth, Margaret Cavendish, and Katherine Philips – explores their work as poets, dramatists, and romantic fiction writers. Demers invites readers to savour the subtlety and daring with which these women authors made writing an expressly social craft.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 304 pages
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.0in x 9.0in
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Author Information
Patricia Demers is a distinguished university professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. -
Table of contents
Preface
Acknowledgements1. Studying Early Modern Women Writers
2. Women in Early Modern England
Chiselling the Image, Unwinding the Rhetoric
Reading Early Modern Women's Writing
Educating Women
Praising and Blaming Women
Wiving and Thriving
Childbearing3. The Genres of Early Modern Women's Writing
Translation
Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Roper, Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Bassett
Jane Lumley, the Cooke Sisters, Anne Vaughan Lock, Margaret Tyler, Mary Sidney Herbert
Theological Debate, Romantic Intrigue, and Classical Tragedy: Elizabeth Cary, Judith Man, Katherine Philips
Meditations and Testimonials
Prayers
Letters and Diaries
Poetry
Elizabethan poets: Isabella Whitney, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Anne Vaughan lock, Lady Mary Sidney Herbert, Anne Dowriche, Elizabeth Melville
Esther Inglis and Elizabeth Jane Weston in the Republic of Letters
Jacobean polemical Talents: Aemilia Lanyer, Bathsua Reginald, Rachel Speght, Mary Wroth
Caroline, protectorate, and Restoration Poets' Complication of Early Modern Selfhood: Diana Primrose, Mary Fage, An Collins, 'Eliza', Elizabeth Major, Gertrude Thimelby, Anne Bradstreet, Mary Cavendish, Katherine Philips
Drama and the Dramatic
'Closet' Drama: translations, Adaptations, Original Creations
Mothers' Advice Books: Elizabeth Grymeston, Dorothy Leigh, Elizabeth Clinton, Elizabeth Joscelin, Elizabeth Richardson
Prophecies and Polemics, Petitions and Missionary Accounts: Radical Women and Godly Zeal4. Six Major Authors
Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621)
Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645)
Elizabeth Tanfiled Cary, Viscountess of Falkland (1585-1639)
Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1653)
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673)
Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda (1632-1664)
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Subjects and Courses
