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The History of British Women’s Writing, 1610–1690

Part of the book series: The History of British Women’s Writing ((HBWW))

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Abstract

Women’s writing during the period covered by this volume, 1610–1690, is marked by the great variety in kinds and genres, in manuscript and in print: from literary works such as poetry, drama, and fiction, to memoirs, letters, pamphlets, and broadsides. Their authors span the social spectrum from aristocratic women writing memoirs and letters to lower-rank women petitioning Parliament on behalf of their imprisoned husbands. The religious and political allegiances of these authors range from strict Anglicans and monarchists to dissenters and supporters of Parliament and even Catholics who were persecuted for their faith. Although the greatest number of publications appeared during the central years of the Civil War and Interregnum (1642–60), the decades before 1640 as well as the years following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 also constitute significant periods for women’s writing.

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Notes

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  82. Stevenson, ‘Still Kissing the Rod?’, 291. Stevenson has contributed to this investigation through her Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) and her anthology co-edited with Peter Davidson, Early Modern Women Poets, which includes works in Latin. Wiesner-Hanks discusses the various pressures, including pedagogical ones (the need to teach ‘world history’ and the mandate ‘to prepare students for the “global” economy’) behind the ‘transcultural’ direction scholarship is taking (‘A Renaissance Woman’, 138–39]).

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Suzuki, M. (2011). Introduction. In: Suzuki, M. (eds) The History of British Women’s Writing, 1610–1690. The History of British Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230305502_1

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