Publisher description for Women and literature in Britain, 1500-1700 / edited by Helen Wilcox.
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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.
Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: English literature Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism, Women and literature Great Britain History 16th century, Women and literature Great Britain History 17th century, English literature Women authors History and criticism