Title: Women's writing 1660-1830 : feminisms and futures /
Authors: Batchelor, Jennie, 1976-; Dow, Gillian, 1975-
Year: 2016
Subjects: English literature Women authors History and criticism; Feminism and literature History.
Abstract: This book is about mapping the future of eighteenth-century women’s writing and feminist literary history, in an academic culture that is not shy of declaring their obsolescence. It asks: what can or should unite us as scholars devoted to the recovery and study of women’s literary history in an era of big data, on the one hand, and ever more narrowly defined specialization, on the other? Leading scholars from the UK and US answer this question in thought-provoking, cross-disciplinary and often polemical essays. Contributors attend to the achievements of eighteenth-century women writers and the scholars who have devoted their lives to them, and map new directions for the advancement of research in the area. They collectively argue that eighteenth-century women’s literary history has a future, and that feminism was, and always should be, at its heart.
Contents: List of Figures; Notes on the Contributors; Preface: Writing and Reading the 'Rugged Realities of Life' ; Notes; Introduction: Feminisms and Futures: Women's Writing 1660-1830; Notes; Passing Judgement: The Place of the Aesthetic in Feminist Literary History; The Recovery Project and Reserving Judgement; The Arts of Suffering: 'Satturday' and Ingeniously Tormenting; Conclusion; Notes; Free Market Feminism? The Political Economy of Women's Writing; Notes; Feminist Literary History: How Do We Know We've Won?; Women's Writing is Dead; Long Live Women's Writing