Women of letters : gender, writing and the life of the mind in early modern England / Leonie Hannan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hannan, Leonie, author.

Series:

Gender in history.

Gender in history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women intellectuals--Great Britain--Correspondence.

Women intellectuals.

Women--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Women.

Women--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Great Britain--Intellectual life--17th century.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Intellectual life--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 206 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Women of Letters writes a new history of English women's intellectual worlds using their private letters as evidence of hidden networks of creative exchange. This is the first detailed study to situate correspondence as the central social practice in the development of female intellectual thought in the period c.1650-1750. The main argument of the book is that many women of this period engaged with a life of the mind through reading and writing letters. Until now, it has been assumed that women's intellectual opportunities were curtailed by their confinement in the home. Women of Letters illuminates the household as a vibrant site of intellectual thought and expression. By using an original definition of 'intellectual', the book offers a new and inclusive view of intellectual life: one that embraces a broad range of informal writing and critical discourse and abandons the elitism of traditional definitions of scholarly achievement. Amidst the catalogue of day-to-day news in women's letters, are lines of ink dedicated to the discussion of books, plays and ideas. Through these personal epistles, Women of Letters offers a fresh interpretation of intellectual life in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, one that champions the ephemeral and the fleeting in order to rediscover women's lives and minds.

Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Series information; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; List of figures; List of figures; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Literacy, education and the life of the mind; Women's intellectual lives in an era of Enlightenment; Letters and letter-writing; Sites and communities; Sources; Material, spatial and textual: approaches to studying letters; The material; The spatial; The textual; Notes; Part I Women and learning; 1 Getting started; Literacy and self-education; Expectations of intellectual life; Access to information; Notes

2 Becoming an 'intellectual'Intellectual identities; The 'learned lady' and the amateur intellectual; Lifecycle and the intellectual biography; Female intellect, originality and the public domain; Notes; Part II Putting pen to paper; 3 Writing and thinking; The epistolary academy; Address and formality; Writing and thinking: the importance of correspondence; The content of letters; Networks and contacts; Conclusion; Notes; 4 Spaces for writing; The home as a site of learning; Spaces for reading and writing; Time and the domestic space; Privacy and the psychology of space; Imagined spaces

NotesPart III Hearts and minds; 5 Connecting reason and emotion; Mind and body; Epistolary relationships; Letters and perfect friendship; Letter-writing as self-help; Conclusion; Notes; 6 A seedbed for change; Letters; Gender; Space; The next generation; Notes; Appendix; Bibliography; Primary sources; Manuscript; Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service; Bodleian Library; British Library; Derbyshire Record Office; East Sussex Record Office, The Keep Archives; Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; Library of the Society of Friends; Print; Secondary sources; Unpublished; Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 17 Jul 2026).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 188-200) and index.

ISBN:

1-5261-0975-1

1-78499-769-2

OCLC:

981867632