Women and Literature in Britain, 1500-1700

First comprehensive introduction to women's role in, and access to, literary culture in early modern Britain.

This is the first comprehensive introduction to the works and social contexts of women writers in early modern Britain, a 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. Drawing together the pioneering work of feminist literary critics and historians, this survey examines ways in which the idea of woman was constructed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and women's role in and access to literary culture. It also focuses on women writers and their output across the spectrum of genres from courtly romance to Quaker prophecy. A unique chronology offers a woman-centred perspective on historical and literary events, and there is a guide to further reading. Women and Literature in Britain, 1500–1700 explores the history of women's part in the development of literary culture, while revealing how paradoxical that history can be.

Chronology: Women and literature in Britain, 1500–1700; Introduction Helen Wilcox; Part I. Constructing Women in Early Modern Britain: 1. Humanist education and the Renaissance concept of women Hilda L. Smith; 2. Religion and the construction of femininity Suzanne Trill; 3. Advice for women from mothers and patriarchs Valerie Wayne; 4. Women reading, reading women Jacqueline Pearson; 5. Women/'women' and the stage Ann Thompson; 6. Feminine modes of knowing and scientific enquiry Bronwen Price; Part II. Writing Women in Early Modern Britian: 7. Renaissance concepts of the 'woman writer' Margaret W. Ferguson; 8. Courtly writing by women Helen Hackett; 9. Women's poetry in early modern Britain Elizabeth H. Hageman; 10. Women's writing and the self Elspeth Graham; 11. The possibilities of prose Betty S. Travitsky; 12. The first female dramatists Ros Ballaster; Further reading.

This first comprehensive introduction to women writers in early modern Britain examines women's role in and access to literary culture, and the work of individual women writers. A chronology offers a woman-centred perspective on historical and literary events, and there is a guide to further reading.