The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing

Featuring the most frequently taught female writers and texts of the early modern period this Companion introduces the reader to the range complexity historical importance and aesthetic merit of women''s writing in Britain from 15001700. Presenting key textual historical and methodological information the volume exemplifies new and diverse approaches to the study of women''s writing. The book is clearly divided into three sections covering: how women learnt to write and how their work was circulated or published; how and what women wrote in the places and spaces in which they lived worked and worshipped; and the different kinds of writing women produced from poetry and fiction to letters diaries and political prose. This structure makes the volume readily adaptable to course usage. The Companion is enhanced by an introduction that lays out crucial framework and critical issues and by chronologies that situate women''s writings alongside political and cultural events.