The Cambridge companion to women's writing in Britain, 1660-1789 / edited by Catherine Ingrassia.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ingrassia, Catherine, editor.

Series:

Cambridge companions to topics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

English literature.

English literature--Women authors.

English literature--18th century--History and criticism.

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English literature--Early modern.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xx, 263 pages ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Women's writing in Britain, 1660-1789

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

"Women writers played a central role in the literature and culture of eighteenth-century Britain. Featuring essays on female writers and genres by leading scholars in the field, this Companion introduces readers to the range, significance and complexity of women's writing across multiple genres in Britain between 1660 and 1789. Divided into two parts, the Companion first discusses women's participation in print culture, featuring essays on topics such as women and popular culture, women as professional writers, women as readers and writers, and place and publication. Additionally, part one explores the ways women writers crossed generic boundaries. The second part contains chapters on many of the key genres in which women wrote including poetry, drama, fiction (early and later), history, the ballad, periodicals, and travel writing. The Companion also provides an introduction surveying the state of the field, an integrated chronology, and a guide to further reading"-- Provided by publisher.

"Virginia Woolf observed that the fact non-aristocratic women "took to" writing and publishing in the seventeenth century "matters far more than I can prove in an hour's discourse." Her words - that women writing matters - remain as relevant today as they did nearly a century ago. Narratives of literary history change as each successive generation of scholars and students refines, revises, and perhaps transforms the understanding of a literary period. Nowhere is that transformative process more evident than in the literary history of women's writing in England. In the early twentieth century, some scholars championed individual woman writers through, in part, the recovery of primary texts: Myra Reynolds' 1903 publication of the poems of Anne Finch (1661-1720), Montague Summers' 1915 edition of the works of Aphra Behn (1640?-89), or William McBurney's 1963 collection of novels from the 1720s that included texts by Eliza Haywood (1693?- 1756) and Mary Davys (1674-1732). Woolf herself briefly mentions women writers discussed within these pages - from Behn, Finch, and H"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Catherine Ingrassia

Part I. Women in Print Culture: 1. Women as readers and writers Mark Towsey

2. The professional female writer Betty Schellenberg

3. Place and publication Sarah Prescott

4. Women and popular culture Paula R. Backscheider

5. Genre crossings Kathryn R. King

Part II. Genres, Modes, and Forms: 6. Poetry David Shuttleton

7. Drama Felicity Nussbaum

8. History Rivka Swenson

9. Satire Melinda A. Rabb

10. Early fiction Nicola Parsons

11. Later fiction Katherine Binhammer

12. Travel writing Harriet Guest

13. Ballads Ruth Perry

14. Periodical writing Mary Waters

Guide to further reading.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107600980

1107600987

9781107013162

110701316X

OCLC:

898162812

Online:

Cover image