The Politics of Early Modern Women's Writing

An introduction to the ever-expanding field of early modern women’s writing, which challenges the conventional view of Renaissance women as marginal to the cultural reproduction of the time.Far from conforming to the conventional ‘chaste, silent and obedient’ model, or merely working from the ‘margins’ of Renaissance culture, women in the early modern period engaged centrally with many of the major ideas and controversies of their time. The author discusses many previously neglected texts and authors, as well as more familiar figures such as Mary Sidney, Countess of Penbroke, Isabella Whitney and Lady Mary Wroth. Examining the importance of genres and forms of circulation in the production of meaning, this survey will be of interest both to readers encountering the material for the first time, and to those working in the fields of women’s writing, gender studies, history and literature.