Women writers of the English renaissance
By: Kim Walker.
Series: Twayne's English authors series ;; TEAS 521
Publisher: Twayne Publishers
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of, 1561-1621 -- Criticism and interpretation; Cary, Elizabeth, Lady, 1585 or 6-1639 -- Criticism and interpretation; Wroth, Mary, Lady, ca. 1586-ca. 1640 -- Criticism and interpretation; English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism; Women and literature -- England -- History -- 16th century; Women and literature -- England -- History -- 17th century; Renaissance -- England
Description: Did women have a Renaissance? Over the last decade much of the most eminent and significant scholarship in Renaissance studies has attempted to answer this question. Kim Walker's Women Writers of the English Renaissance takes a commanding lead among the responses.

In a careful, current, and wide-ranging survey of Renaissance women writers, Walker examines the social, educational, economic, and ideological constraints under which women wrote; their attempts to move from the margin to the center of literary production; and their establishment of careers as professional writers. Both major and minor writers - poets, diarists, letter writers, romance writers, playwrights, and biographers - are discussed here in revealing, reliable, and provocative ways. Major writers including Mary Sidney, Elizabeth Cary, and Mary Wroth are presented in a new, more broad perspective.

Walker's synthesis of cultural history and literary criticism makes this volume a significant accomplishment that should be read by every scholar and student of the culture and literature of Tudor and Stuart England.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.