Women and epistolary agency in early modern culture, 1450-1690 / edited by James Daybell and Andrew Gordon.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Daybell, James, 1972- editor.

Gordon, Andrew, 1969- editor.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Women and gender in the early modern world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English letters.

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

English prose literature.

English prose literature--Women authors.

Women authors, English--18th century--Correspondence.

Women authors, English.

Letter writing--History--16th century.

Letter writing.

Letter writing--History--17th century.

English letters--Women authors.

History.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Records and correspondence.

Correspondence.

Personal correspondence.

Physical Description:

xv; 258 pages ; 24cm.

Place of Publication:

Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2016.

Summary:

Women and Epistolary Agency in Early Modern Culture, 1450-1690 is the first collection to examine the gendered nature of women's letter-writing in England and Ireland from the late-fifteenth century through to the Restoration. The essays collected here represent an important body of new work by a group of international scholars who together look to reorient the study of women's letters in the contexts of early modern culture. The volume builds upon recent approaches to the letter, both rhetorical and material, that have the power to transform the ways in which we understand, study and situate early modern women's letter-writing, challenging misconceptions of women's letters as intrinsically private, domestic and apolitical. The essays in the volume embrace a range of interdisciplinary approaches: historical, literary, palaeographic, linguistic, material and gender-based. Contributors deal with a variety of issues related to early modern women's correspondence in England and Ireland. These include women's rhetorical and persuasive skills and the importance of gendered epistolary strategies; gender and the materiality of the letter as a physical form; female agency, education, knowledge and power; epistolary networks and communication technologies. In this volume, the study of women's letters is not confined to writings by women; contributors here examine not only the collaborative nature of some letter-writing but also explore how men addressed women in their correspondence as well as some rich examples of how women were constructed in and through the letters of men. As a whole, the book stands as a valuable reassessment of the complex gendered nature of early modern women's correspondence. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Living letters: Re-reading correspondence and women's letters / James Daybell Daybell, James, Andrew Gordon Gordon, Andrew 1

Part I Objects of study: Constructing women's letters 21

2 What they wrote: Early Tudor aristocratic women, 1450-1550 / Barbara J. Harris Harris, Barbara J. 23

3 'By the queen': Collaborative authorship in scribal correspondence of Queen Elizabeth I / Melanie Evans Evans, Melanie 36

4 The materiality of early modern women's letters / James Daybell Daybell, James 55

Part II Voices of authority: Letters of counsel and advice 79

5 Women as counsellors in sixteenth-century England: The letters of Lady Anne Bacon and Lady Elizabeth Russell / Gemma Allen Allen, Gemma 81

6 The rhetoric of medical authority in Lady Katherine Ranelagh's letters / Michelle Dimeo Dimeo, Michelle 96

7 John Evelyn, Elizabeth Carey, and the trials of pious friendship / Cedric C. Brown Brown, Cedric C. 110

8 'Be plyeabell to all good counseh": Lady Brilliana Barley's advice letter to her son / Johanna Harris Harris, Johanna 128

Part III Networks and negotiations: The social relations of correspondence 149

9 Making friends with Elizabeth in the letters of Roger Ascham / Rachel McGregor McGregor, Rachel 151

10 Irish women's letters, 1641-1653 / Marie-Louse Coolahan Coolahan, Marie-Louse 167

11 Recovering agency in the epistolary traffic of Frances, Countess of Essex and Jane Daniell / Andrew Cordon Cordon, Andrew 182

12 Quaker correspondence: Religious identity and communication networks in the interregnum Atlantic World / Marjon Ames Ames, Marjon 207

Postscript 221

13 New directions in early modern women's letters: WEMLO's challenges and possibilities / Kim Mclean-Flander Mclean-Flander, Kim, James Daybell Daybell, James 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Women and epistolary agency in early modern culture, 1450-1690.

ISBN:

9781472478269

1472478266

OCLC:

937998052