The academic discipline of women's writing is a discrete area of
literary studies
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
which is based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their sex, and so women writers by definition are a group worthy of separate study: "Their texts emerge from and intervene in conditions usually very different from those which produced most writing by men." It is not a question of the subject matter or political stance of a particular author, but of her
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
, ''i.e.'' her position as a woman within the literary world.
Women's writing, as a discrete area of literary studies and practice, is recognized explicitly by the numbers of dedicated journals,
organizations
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
,
awards
An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration.
An award ...
, and
conferences
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...
which focus mainly or exclusively on texts produced by women. Women's writing as a recognized area of study has been developing since the 1970s. The majority of English and American literature programs offer courses on specific aspects of literature by women, and women's writing is generally considered an area of specialization in its own right.
Distinct category
![Virginia Woolf 1927](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Virginia_Woolf_1927.jpg)
The broader discussion women's cultural contributions as a separate category has a long history, but the specific study of women's writing as a distinct category of scholarly interest is relatively recent. There are examples in the 18th century of catalogues of women writers, including
George Ballard's ''Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain Who Have Been Celebrated for their Writing or Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, and Sciences'' (1752);
John Duncombe's ''Feminiad'', a catalogue of women writers; and the ''Biographium faemineum: the female worthies, or, Memoirs of the most illustrious ladies, of all ages and nations, who have been eminently distinguished for their magnanimity, learning, genius, virtue, piety, and other excellent endowments''. Similarly, women have been treated as a distinct category by various
misogynist
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...
writings, perhaps best exemplified by
Richard Polwhele
Richard Polwhele (6 January 1760 – 12 March 1838) was a Cornish people, Cornish clergyman, poetry, poet and historian of Cornwall and Devon.
Biography
Richard Polwhele's ancestors long held the manor of Treworgan, 4 3/4 miles south-east of ...
's ''
The Unsex'd Females
''The Unsex'd Females, a Poem'' (1798), by Richard Polwhele, is a polemical intervention into the public debates over the role of women at the end of the 18th century. The poem is primarily concerned with what Polwhele characterizes as the encroach ...
'', a critique in verse of women writers at the end of the 18th century with a particular focus on
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
and her circle.
Earlier discussion of women's broader cultural contributions can be found as far back as the 8th century BC, when
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
compiled ''
Catalogue of Women
The ''Catalogue of Women'' ( grc, Γυναικῶν Κατάλογος, Gunaikôn Katálogos)—also known as the ''Ehoiai '' ( grc, Ἠοῖαι, Ēoîai, )The Latin transliterations ''Eoeae'' and ''Ehoeae'' are also used (e.g. , ); see Title ...
'' (attr.), a list of heroines and goddesses.
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
listed heroic and artistic women in his ''
Moralia
The ''Moralia'' ( grc, Ἠθικά ''Ethika''; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and mores") is a group of manuscripts dating from the 10th–13th centuries, traditionally ascribed to the 1st-century Greek scholar Plu ...
''. In the medieval period,
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...
used mythic and biblical women as moral exemplars in ''
De mulieribus claris
''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...
'' (On Famous Women) (1361–1375), directly inspiring
Christine de Pisan
Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes.
Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval France ...
to write ''
The Book of the City of Ladies
''The Book of the City of Ladies'' or ''Le Livre de la Cité des Dames'' (finished by 1405), is perhaps Christine de Pizan's most famous literary work, and it is her second work of lengthy prose. Pizan uses the vernacular French language to comp ...
'' (1405).
Women writers themselves have long been interested in tracing a "woman's tradition" in writing.
Mary Scott's ''The Female Advocate: A Poem Occasioned by Reading Mr Duncombe's Feminead'' (1774) is one of the best known such works in the 18th century, a period that saw a burgeoning of women writers being published. In 1803,
Mary Hays
Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous (and infamous) women. She is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers ...
published the six volume ''Female Biography''. And,
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
's ''
A Room of One's Own
''A Room of One's Own'' is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of C ...
'' (1929) exemplifies the impulse in the modern period to explore a tradition of women's writing. Woolf, however, sought to explain what she perceived as an absence; and by the mid-century scholarly attention turned to finding and reclaiming "lost" writers. There were many to reclaim: it is common for the editors of dictionaries or anthologies of women's writing to refer to the difficulty in choosing from all the available material.
Trade publishers have similarly focused on women's writing: since the 1970s there have been a number of
literary periodicals (such as ''Fireweed'' and ''
Room of One's Own'') which are dedicated for publishing the creative work of women writers, and there are a number of
dedicated presses as well, such as the
Second Story Press
Second Story Press is a book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its titles include the
international bestseller ''Hana's Suitcase'', about Hana Brady, which has been published in over forty countries around the world. The com ...
and the Women's Press. In addition, collections and anthologies of women's writing continue to be published by both trade and
academic presses.
The question of whether there a "women's tradition" remains vexing; some scholars and editors refer to a "women's canon" and women's "literary lineage," and seek to "identify the recurring themes and to trace the evolutionary and interconnecting patterns" in women's writing, but the range of women's writing across time and place is so considerable that, according to some, it is inaccurate to speak of "women's writing" in a universal sense: Claire Buck calls "women's writing" an "unstable category." Further, women writers cannot be considered apart from their male contemporaries and the larger literary tradition. Recent scholarship on race, class, and sexuality in literature further complicate the issue and militate against the impulse to posit one "women's tradition". Some scholars, such as Roger Lonsdale, mentions that something of a commonality exists and that "it is not unreasonable to consider" women writers" in some aspects as a special case, given their educational insecurities and the constricted notions of the properly 'feminine' in social and literary behaviour they faced." Using the term "women's writing" implies, then, the belief that women in some sense constitute a group, however diverse, who share a position of difference based on gender.
Rediscovering ignored works from the past
In the West, the
second wave of feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
W ...
prompted a general revelation of women's historical contributions, and various academic sub-disciplines, such as
women's history
Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of ...
and women's writing, developed in response to the belief that women's lives and contributions have been underrepresented as areas of scholarly interest. Much of this early period of feminist literary scholarship was given over to the rediscovery and reclamation of texts written by women. Studies like
Dale Spender
Dale Spender (born 22 September 1943)''The Bibliography of Australian Literature: P–Z'' edited by John Arnold, John Hay (page 409). is an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant. In 1983, Dale Spender was co-founder of an ...
's ''
Mothers of the Novel'' (1986) and Jane Spencer's ''The Rise of the Woman Novelist'' (1986) were ground-breaking in their insistence that women have always been writing. Commensurate with this growth in scholarly interest, various presses began the task of reissuing long-out-of-print texts.
Virago Press
Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on Feminism, feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several Briti ...
began to publish its large list of 19th and early-20th-century novels in 1975, and became one of the first commercial presses to join in the project of reclamation. In the 1980s Pandora Press, responsible for publishing Spender's study, issued a companion line of 18th-century novels by written by women. More recently,
Broadview Press
Broadview Press is an independent academic publisher that focuses on the humanities. Founded in 1985 by Don LePan, the company now employs over 30 people, has over 800 titles in print, and publishes approximately 40 titles each year. Broadview's o ...
continues to issue 18th- and 19th-century novels, many hitherto out of print, and the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
has a series of republications of early women's novels. There has been commensurate growth in the area of
biographical dictionaries of women writers due to a perception, according to one editor, that "
st of our women are not represented in the 'standard' reference books in the field."
Elaine V. Bellin's book, ''Redeeming Eve: Women Writers of the English Renaissance'', mentions the lack of female representation in renaissance literature, and explores the idea of missing evidence of female writers of that period. The widespread interest in women's writing developed alongside, and was influenced by, a general reassessment and expansion of the
literary canon
The term canon derives from the Greek (), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin (language), Latin and Old French into English. The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of ...
. Interest in
post-colonial literature
Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It exists on all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especia ...
,
gay and lesbian literature
Gay literature is a collective term for literature produced by or for the gay community which involves characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying male homosexual behavior.
Overview and history
Because the social acceptance of homosexual ...
, writing by people of colour, working people's writing, and the cultural productions of other historically marginalized groups has resulted in a whole-scale expansion of what is considered "literature," and genres hitherto not regarded as "literary," (such as children's writing, journals, letters, and travel writing, among many others) are now the subjects of scholarly interest. Most
genres and sub-genres have undergone a similar analysis, so that one now sees work on the "female gothic" or
women's science fiction, for example.
"Exemplary women" tradition
*
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
, ''
Catalogue of Women
The ''Catalogue of Women'' ( grc, Γυναικῶν Κατάλογος, Gunaikôn Katálogos)—also known as the ''Ehoiai '' ( grc, Ἠοῖαι, Ēoîai, )The Latin transliterations ''Eoeae'' and ''Ehoeae'' are also used (e.g. , ); see Title ...
'' (attr.)
*
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
, in ''
Moralia
The ''Moralia'' ( grc, Ἠθικά ''Ethika''; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and mores") is a group of manuscripts dating from the 10th–13th centuries, traditionally ascribed to the 1st-century Greek scholar Plu ...
''
*
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...
, ''
De mulieribus claris
''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...
'' (On Famous Women) (1361–1375)
*
Christine de Pisan
Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes.
Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval France ...
, ''
The Book of the City of Ladies
''The Book of the City of Ladies'' or ''Le Livre de la Cité des Dames'' (finished by 1405), is perhaps Christine de Pizan's most famous literary work, and it is her second work of lengthy prose. Pizan uses the vernacular French language to comp ...
'' (1405)
*
Osbern Bokenam
Osbern Bokenam (c. 1393 – c. 1464, also spelt Bokenham) was an English Augustinian (Austin) friar and poet. He was a follower of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Life
Osbern Bokenam was born, according to his own account, on 6 October 1393. His name sugges ...
, ''Legendys of hooly wummen'' (c.1430)
*
George Ballard, ''Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain Who Have Been Celebrated for their Writing or Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, and Sciences''. Oxford: W. Jackson, 1752.
*
John Duncombe, ''
The Feminead'' (1754)
*Anon., ''Biographium faemineum : the female worthies, or, Memoirs of the most illustrious ladies, of all ages and nations, who have been eminently distinguished for their magnanimity, learning, genius, virtue, piety, and other excellent endowments''. London: Printed for S. Crowder, 1766. 2 vols.
*
Mary Scott, ''The Female Advocate: A Poem Occasioned by Reading Mr Duncombe's Feminead''. London: Joseph Johnson, 1774.
*
Mary Hays
Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous (and infamous) women. She is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers ...
, ''
Female Biography, or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries'' (6 vols., 1803)
*
Sarah Josepha Hale
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788April 30, 1879) was an American writer, activist, and editor of ''Godey's Lady's Book''. She was the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Hale famously campaigned for the creation of the ...
, ''Woman's Record; or, Sketches of All Distinguished women from the Creation to AD 1850'' (1854)
*
Charlotte Mary Yonge
Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901) was an English novelist, who wrote in the service of the church. Her abundant books helped to spread the influence of the Oxford Movement and show her keen interest in matters of public health and sanitation.
...
, ''Biographies of Good Women'' (First Series, 1862; Second Series, 1865)
*
Julia Kavanagh, ''Women in France during the Eighteenth Century'' (1850), ''Women of Christianity'' (1852), ''French Women of Letters'' (1862) and ''English Women of Letters'' (1862). These collective biographies "all argue against idealized, sentimental portrayals of female experience. She intended these biographies to provide a corrective to the silence of male historians on the topic of female influence in a variety of sphere beyond the domestic" (
ODNB').
*
Helen C. Black, ''Notable Women Authors of the Day: Biographical Sketches'' (1893).
[Black, Helen C]
''Notable Women Authors of the Day: Biographical Sketches''
Glasgow: David Bryce & Son, 1893. Digital copy at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
**"These sketches originally appeared as a series in the 'Lady's pictorial'... They are now revised, enlarged and brought up to date." Sketches of
Eliza Lynn Linton
Eliza Lynn Linton (10 February 1822 – 14 July 1898) was the first female salaried journalist in Britain and the author of over 20 novels. Despite her path-breaking role as an independent woman, many of her essays took a strong anti-feminist s ...
,
Charlotte Riddell
Charlotte Eliza Lawson Riddell (nee Cowan; 30 September 1832 – 24 September 1906), known also as Mrs J. H. Riddell, was a popular and influential Irish-born writer in the Victorian period. She was the author of 56 books, novels and short stor ...
,
Lucy Bethia Walford
Lucy Bethia (Colquhoun) Walford (17 April 1845 – 11 May 1915) was a Scottish novelist and artist, who wrote 45 books, the majority of them "light-hearted domestic comedies". Accurate writing was a big consideration for her.
Life
Walford was ...
,
Rhoda Broughton
Rhoda Broughton (29 November 1840 – 5 June 1920) was a Welsh novelist and short story writer.Robert Hadji, "Rhoda Broughton" in Jack Sullivan (ed) (1986) ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural'' Viking Press, 1986, , p. 285 ...
,
John Strange Winter
Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Stannard (née Palmer; 1856–1911) writing under the pseudonym of John Strange Winter, was a British novelist. She was founding president of the Writers' Club in 1892, and president of the Society of Women Journalists in ...
(pseud. of Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Stannard), Mrs. Alexander (pseud. of
Annie French Hector),
Helen Mathers (pseud of
Ellen Buckingham Mathews),
Florence Marryat
Florence Marryat (9 July 1833 – 27 October 1899) was a British author and actress. The daughter of author Capt. Frederick Marryat, she was particularly known for her sensational novels and her involvement with several celebrated spiritual me ...
,
Caroline Emily Sharp,
Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, née Hamilton, (27 April 1855 – 24 January 1897), was an Irish novelist whose light romantic fiction was popular throughout the English-speaking world in the late 19th century.
Biography
She was born in County Cor ...
,
Matilda Betham-Edwards
Matilda Betham-Edwards (4 March 1836, in Westerfield, Ipswich – 4 January 1919, in Hastings) was an English novelist, travel writer and Francophile, and a prolific poet, who corresponded with several well-known English male poets of the day. ...
,
Edna Lyall
Ada Ellen Bayly (25 March 1857 – 8 February 1903), also known as Edna Lyall, was an English novelist, who "supported the women's suffrage movement from an early age."''XIX Century Fiction, Part II: L–Z'', London: Jarndyce, 2020, Item 34.
Bi ...
(pseud of
Ada Ellen Bayly),
Rosa Nouchette Carey
Rosa Nouchette Carey (27 September 1840 – 9 July 1909) was an English children's writer and popular novelist, whose works reflected the values of her time and were thought of as wholesome for girls. However, they are "not entirely bereft of gr ...
,
Adeline Sergeant
Adeline Sergeant (4 July 1851 – 4 December 1904) was an English writer.
Life
Born Emily Frances Adeline Sergeant at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the second daughter of Richard Sergeant and Jane (Hall), she was home schooled until the age of thirtee ...
,
Mary Eliza Kennard
Mary Eliza Kennard (1850–1936) was an English novelist and writer of non-fiction. Most of her work was published under the name of Mrs Edward Kennard.
Kennard specialised in stories of the English country house world of hunting, shooting, an ...
,
Jessie Fothergill
Jessie Fothergill (June 1851 – 28 July 1891) was an English novelist. Her novel ''The First Violin'' sold particularly well.
Life and writings
Fothergill was born in June 1851 at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, the eldest child of Thomas Fothergi ...
,
Mary Anne Hardy
Mary Anne, Lady Hardy ( MacDowell; c. 1825–1891), also known as Lady Duffus Hardy, with novels published under the pseudonym Addlestone Hill, was an English novelist and travel writer.
Life
She was the only child of Charles MacDowell and Eliz ...
,
Iza Duffus Hardy
Iza Duffus Hardy (11 October 1850 – 30 August 1922) was a prolific British novelist and travel writer, associated with the pre-Raphaelite artistic community.
Early life
Iza Duffus Hardy was born in Enfield, the daughter of archivist Sir Th ...
,
May Crommelin
Maria Henrietta de la Cherois Crommelin, known as May de la Cherois Crommelin, (1850–1930) was a novelist and travel writer born in Ulster, Ireland at Carrowdore Castle in County Down.Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gent ...
,
Matilda Charlotte Houstoun
Charlotte Houstoun (née Jesse; 16 August 1811 – June 1892) was a British travel writer, novelist, biographer, and women's right activist. She is best known for her series of travel writings, particularly ''Texas and the Gulf of Mexico'' ...
,
Caroline Rosetta Fraser,
Julie Bosville Chetwynd,
Jean Middlemass
Mary Jane (Jean) Middlemass ( pen name, Mignionette; 14 July 1833 – 4 November 1919) was an English novelist at the turn of the 20th-century.
Middlemass was the daughter of Robert Hume Middlemass (of the Westbarns of Haddington), and Mary Port ...
,
Augusta De Grasse Stevens,
Bertha Jane Grundy (wrote as Mrs. Leith Adams),
Jean Ingelow
Jean Ingelow (17 March 1820 – 20 July 1897) was an English poet and novelist, who gained sudden fame in 1863. She also wrote several stories for children.
Early life
Born in Boston, Lincolnshire on 17 March 1820, Jean Ingelow was the daughter ...
.
Resources
*
Abel, Elizabeth, ''Writing and Sexual Difference''. University of Chicago Press, 1982.
*
Allison, Dorothy. ''
Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature''. New York: Firebrand Books, 1994.
*Ayres, Brenda, ''Silent Voices: Forgotten Novels by Victorian Women Writers''. Westport, CT: Praeger Pub, 2003.
*Backscheider, Paula R., and John Richetti, eds. ''Popular Fiction by Women, 1660-1730''. Oxford: OUP, 1996.
*
Busby, Margaret (ed.). ''
Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present''. Jonathan Cape, 1992.
*Eagleton, Mary, ed., ''Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
*
Fetterley, Judith, ''The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction''. Indiana University Press, 1978.
*
Figes, Eva,''Sex and Subterfuge: Women Writers to 1850''. The Macmillan Press, 1982.
*Ferguson, Mary Anne,
ompiler ''Images of Women in Literature'', 3rd Edition, Houghton-Mifflin Co. 1981.
*
Gilbert, Sandra M., and
Susan Gubar
Susan D. Gubar (born November 30, 1944) is an American author and distinguished Professor Emerita of English and Women's Studies at Indiana University.
She is best known for co-authoring the landmark feminist literary study '' The Madwoman in t ...
, ''The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination''. Yale University Press, 1979.
*Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar, eds., ''The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature and Theory''. London: Virago Press, 1989.
*Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. ''No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century''. 2 Vols. New Haven: Yale UP, 1989.
*Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar, eds., ''
Norton Anthology of Literature by Women
''The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English'', published by W. W. Norton & Company, is one of the Norton Anthology series for use in English literary studies. It is edited by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. This vo ...
''.
*
Greer, Germaine, et al., eds. ''Kissing the Rod: an anthology of seventeenth-century women's verse''. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1988.
*Hobby, Elaine, ''Virtue of Necessity: English women's writing 1649-1688''. London: Virago Press, 1988.
*
Lonsdale, Roger ed. ''
Eighteenth Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
*
Moi, Toril, ''Sexual/ Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory''. London: Methuen, 1987. ; (second edition).
*Robertson, Fiona, ed. ''Women's Writing, 1778-1838''. Oxford: OUP, 2001.
*
Russ, Joanna. ''How to Suppress Women's Writing''. Austin: U of Texas Press, 1983.
*
spender, dale, ''
Mothers of the Novel: 100 good women writers before Jane Austen''. London and New York: Pandora, 1986.
*
Showalter, Elaine, ''A Literature of their own: from Charlotte Bronte to Doris Lessing''. London: Virago Press, 1977.
*
Spacks, Patricia Meyer
Patricia Ann Meyer Spacks (born 1929) is an American literary scholar. She is the Edgar F. Shannon Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia and former President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Modern Language Associat ...
, ''The Female Imagination: A Literary and Psychological Investigation of women's writing''. George Allen and Unwin, 1976.
*Spencer, Jane, ''The Rise of the Woman Novelist''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
*
Todd, Janet
Janet Margaret Todd OBE (born 10 September 1942) is a British academic and author. She was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare. Much of her work concerns Mary ...
, ''Feminist Literary History: A Defence''. Cambridge: Polity Press / Basil Blackwell, 1988.
*Todd, Janet, ''The Sign of Angellica: women, writing and fiction, 1660-1800''. London: Virago Press, 1989.
Series of republications
*'
Broadview Press'' republish modern editions of classic works of literature as Broadview Editions (liste
alphabetically by titlean
chronologically: a high proportion are works by women writers
*Collaborative publication:
The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe See th
(60 titles, 1996–2010)
(over 75 volumes since 2009)
Feminist Press New York-based press which began reprinting books by American women in 1972
*
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
: ''The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers'', ed.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...
30 vols., Oxford University Press, 1988. A 10-volume ''Supplement'' was published in 1991.
*
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
Women Writers in English 1350-1850(scholarly texts priced for libraries)
*Pandora Press''
series:
**
Mary Brunton
Mary Brunton (née Balfour) (1 November 1778 – 7 December 1818) was a Scottish novelist, whose work has been seen as redefining femininity. Fay Weldon praised it as "rich in invention, ripe with incident, shrewd in comment, and erotic in in ...
, ''Discipline'' (1815; repr. 1986)
**
Mary Brunton
Mary Brunton (née Balfour) (1 November 1778 – 7 December 1818) was a Scottish novelist, whose work has been seen as redefining femininity. Fay Weldon praised it as "rich in invention, ripe with incident, shrewd in comment, and erotic in in ...
, ''
Self-control
Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, it is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's b ...
'' (1810/11; repr. 1986)
**
Frances Burney
Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...
, ''
The Wanderer; or Female Difficulties'' (1814; repr. 1988)
**
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...
, ''
Belinda
Belinda is a feminine given name of unknown origin, apparently coined from Italian ''bella'', meaning "beautiful". Alternatively it may be derived from the Old High German name ''Betlinde'', which possibly meant "bright serpent" or "bright linde ...
'' (1801; repr. 1986)
**
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...
, ''
Helen
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, ...
'' (1834; repr. 1987)
**
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...
, ''
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
'' (1814; repr. 1986)
**
Eliza Fenwick
Eliza Fenwick (; 1 February 1767 – 8 December 1840) was an English author, whose works include ''Secresy; or The Ruin on the Rock'' (1795) and several children's books. She was born in Cornwall, married an alcoholic, and had two children by hi ...
, ''Secrecy, or The Ruin of the Rock'' (1795; repr. 1988)
**
Sarah Fielding
Sarah Fielding (8 November 1710 – 9 April 1768) was an English author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She wrote ''The Governess, or The Little Female Academy'' (1749), thought to be the first novel in English aimed expressly at chil ...
, ''
The Governess, or The Little Female Academy
''The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy'' (published 1749) by Sarah Fielding is the first full-length novel written for children.As such and in itself it is a significant work of 18th-century children's literature.H. Carpenter and M. Pr ...
'' (1749; repr. 1987)
**
Mary Hamilton
"Mary Hamilton", or "The Fower Maries" ("The Four Marys"), is a common name for a well-known sixteenth-century ballad from Scotland based on an apparently fictional incident about a lady-in-waiting to a Queen of Scotland. It is Child Ballad 1 ...
, ''Munster Village'' (1778; repr. 1987)
**
Mary Hays
Mary Hays (1759–1843) was an autodidact intellectual who published essays, poetry, novels and several works on famous (and infamous) women. She is remembered for her early feminism, and her close relations to dissenting and radical thinkers ...
, ''
Memoirs of Emma Courtney
''Memoirs of Emma Courtney'' is an epistolary novel by Mary Hays, first published in 1796. The novel is partly autobiographical and based on the author's own unrequited love for William Frend (social reformer), William Frend] Mary Hay's relationsh ...
'' (1796; repr. 1987)
**
Eliza Haywood
Eliza Haywood (c. 1693 – 25 February 1756), born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. An increase in interest and recognition of Haywood's literary works began in the 1980s. Described as "prolific even by the standar ...
, ''The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless'' (1751; repr. 1986)
**
Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson, 15 October 1753 – 1 August 1821) was an English novelist, actress, dramatist, and translator. Her two novels, '' A Simple Story'' and '' Nature and Art'', have received particular critical attention.
Life
Bo ...
, ''
A Simple Story'' (1791; repr. 1987)
**
Harriet Lee and
Sophia Lee
Sophia Lee (1750 – 13 March 1824) was an English novelist, dramatist and educator. She was a formative writer of Gothic fiction. She and her sister Harriet also wrote a number of ''Canterbury Tales'' (1797).
Life and literary production
She ...
, ''The Canterbury Tales'' (1797–1805; repr. 1989)
**
Charlotte Lennox
Charlotte Lennox, ''née'' Ramsay (c. 1729 – 4 January 1804), was a Scottish novelist, playwright, poet, translator, essayist, and magazine editor, who has primarily been remembered as the author of ''The Female Quixote'', and for her associ ...
, ''
The Female Quixote, or the Adventures of Arabella'' (1752; repr. 1986)
**
Sydney Owenson
Sydney, Lady Morgan (''née'' Owenson; 25 December 1781? – 14 April 1859), was an Irish novelist, best known for ''The Wild Irish Girl'' (1806)'','' a romantic, and some critics suggest, "proto-feminist", novel with political and patriotic ov ...
, ''The O’Briens and the O’Flahertys: A National Tale'' (1827; repr. 1988)
**
Sydney Owenson
Sydney, Lady Morgan (''née'' Owenson; 25 December 1781? – 14 April 1859), was an Irish novelist, best known for ''The Wild Irish Girl'' (1806)'','' a romantic, and some critics suggest, "proto-feminist", novel with political and patriotic ov ...
, ''
The Wild Irish Girl
''The Wild Irish Girl; a National Tale'' is an epistolary novel written by Irish novelist Sydney Owenson (later Lady Morgan) in 1806.
Plot
The Hon. Horatio M———, the younger son of the Earl of M———, is banished to his father's est ...
'' (1806; repr. 1986)
**
Amelia Opie
Amelia Opie (née Alderson; 12 November 1769 – 2 December 1853) was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic period up to 1828. Opie was also a leading abolitionist in Norwich, England. Hers was the first of 187,000 nam ...
, ''
Adeline Mowbray, or The Mother and Daughter'' (1804; repr. 1986)
**
Frances Sheridan
Frances Sheridan (''née'' Chamberlaine) (1724 – 26 September 1766) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright.
Life
Frances Chamberlaine was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Dr. Phillip Chamberlaine, was an Anglican minister. In 1747 ...
, ''Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph'' (1761; repr. 1987)
**
Charlotte Turner Smith
Charlotte Smith (née Turner; – ) was an English novelist and poet of the School of Sensibility whose ''Elegiac Sonnets'' (1784) contributed to the revival of the form in England. She also helped to set conventions for Gothic fiction and wro ...
, ''
Emmeline: The Orphan of the Castle'' (1788; repr. 1989)
**
Charlotte Turner Smith
Charlotte Smith (née Turner; – ) was an English novelist and poet of the School of Sensibility whose ''Elegiac Sonnets'' (1784) contributed to the revival of the form in England. She also helped to set conventions for Gothic fiction and wro ...
, ''
The Old Manor House'' (1793; repr. 1987)
*
Persephone Books
''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...
: London-based press which "reprints forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers. The titles are chosen to appeal to busy women who rarely have time to spend in ever-larger bookshops and who would like to have access to a list of books designed to be neither too literary nor too commercial."
*Routledge
The Early Modern Englishwoman, 1500-1750: Contemporary Editions The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works for the Study of Early Modern Women (three multi-par
series, and
Chawton House Library: Women's Novels
*Rutgers University Press''
American Women Writers Series*University of Kentucky Press series o
Eighteenth-Century Novels by Women*
Virago Press
Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on Feminism, feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several Briti ...
since 1975 has republished over 500 post-1800 classics of women's literature (se
their listan
their timeline in their series Virago Modern Classics.
Web-based projects
*
ttp://www.etang.umontreal.ca/bwp1800/ British Women Playwrights around 1800br>
British Women Romantic Poets, 1789 - 1832The Brown University Women Writers ProjectCanada's Early Women WritersCanadian Women PoetsA Celebration of Women WritersChawton House LibraryCorvey Women Writers on the WebEmory Women Writers Resource ProjectARTFL French Women Writers ProjectGirlebooks: free ebooks by women writersARTFL Italian Women Writers ProjectThe Orlando Project: A History of Women's Writing in the British IslesProject Electra, Oxford University (under construction)Project ContinuaThe Victorian Women Writers ProjectVoices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of ColorWomen Writers of Early Canada*
Women Writers Project The Northeastern University Women Writers Project (formerly the Brown University Women Writers Project) or WWP, founded in 1986 at Brown University, is a long-term research and publication project which focuses on making texts from early modern wom ...
Women Romantic-Era WritersWomen Writers Resource Project
Scholarly journals
The following journals publish research on women's writing mainly or exclusively:
*
ABO:Interactive Journal for Women in Arts, 1640-1830'
*
Atlantis'
*
Camera Obscura'. Duke UP.
*
Contemporary Women's Writing' Oxford University Press
*
Critical Matrix: The Princeton Journal of Women, Gender, and Culture'
*
differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies'. Duke UP.
*
'
*
Feminist Studies'
*
Femspec': speculative fiction
*
'. U of Nebraska P.
*
Genders'
*
' (Australian)
*''International Journal of Women's Studies'' (1978–1985)
*
'
*
'
*
'. U of Nebraska P.
*
Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies'
*
' (1975–2015)
*
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature'
*
WILLA: The Women in Literacy and Life Assembly of The National Council of Teachers of English'
*
Women in the Arts'
*
Women's Review of Books'
*
'
*
Women's Writing' /
Literary and review journals of women's writing
*
'
*''
BlueStockings Journal
was a literary magazine created in 1911 by a group of five women: Haru Raichō Hiratsuka, Yasumochi Yoshiko, Mozume Kazuko, Kiuchi Teiko, and Nakano Hatsuko. The group called themselves the ''Japanese Bluestocking Society'' (青鞜社 ''Seitō- ...
'' (Seitô-sha), founded in 1911
''Calyx'' (1976-)*''
Fireweed
''Chamaenerion angustifolium'' is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb. In ...
'' (1977–)
*
Kalliope, a journal of women's literature & art'
*
' (formerly ''Astarte'', 1989–2000)
*''
Room of One's Own'' (1975–)
*
So to Speak'
*''Tiger Lily'' (1986–)
*
Women's Review of Books' (1983–)
See also
*
Écriture féminine
''Écriture féminine,'' or "women's writing", is a term coined by French feminist and literary theorist Hélène Cixous in her 1975 essay "The Laugh of the Medusa". Cixous aimed to establish a genre of literary writing that deviates from tradit ...
*
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
*
Feminist film theory
Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. With the advancements in film throughout the years ...
*
Feminist literary criticism
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to an ...
*
Feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
*
Feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on theories that include feminist themes including but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist ...
*
Feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...
*
Gender in science fiction
*
History of feminism
The history of feminism comprises the narratives (chronological or thematic) of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending ...
*
Literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
*
The Women's Library (London)
The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...
*
Turkish women writers
Turkish women writers refers to Turkish women contributors to Turkish literature. The area is parallel to Women's writing in English.
Pioneers
During the Ottoman era, there were only a few woman poets and novelists. Professor Nazan Bekiroğlu ...
*
Women artists
The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Why ...
*
Women in science fiction
The role of women in speculative fiction has changed a great deal since the early to mid-20th century. There are several aspects to women's roles, including their participation as authors of speculative fiction and their role in science fiction ...
*
Women letter writers
Women letter writers in early modern Europe created lengthy correspondences, where they expressed their intellect and their creativity; in the process, they also left a rich historical legacy.
Over time, a large number of women's correspondenc ...
*
Women science fiction authors
The role of women in speculative fiction has changed a great deal since the early to mid-20th century. There are several aspects to women's roles, including their participation as authors of speculative fiction and their role in science fiction ...
*
Women's cinema
Women's cinema primarily describes cinematic works directed (and optionally produced too) by women filmmakers. The works themselves do not have to be stories specifically about women and the target audience can be varied.
It is also a variety of ...
*
Women's fiction
Women's fiction is an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women's life experience that are marketed to female readers, and includes many mainstream novels or women's rights books. It is distinct from women's writing, which refers ...
*
Women's music
Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbian ...
*
Women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
Lists
*
List of biographical dictionaries of women writers
There are a large and ever growing number of biographical dictionaries of women writers. These works reflect the emergence of women's literature as a flourishing field of academic study over the past few decades. The genre also draws on a much old ...
*
List of early-modern British women novelists
This is an alphabetical list of female novelists who were active in Kingdom of England, England and Wales, and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800. ''Nota bene'': authors of novels are the focus of this list, thou ...
*
Chronology of early-modern British women playwrights
This is a chronological list of women playwrights who were active in England and Wales, and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. (For a chronological list, see the link on ...
*
List of early-modern British women playwrights
This is an alphabetical list of women playwrights who were active in Kingdom of England, England and Wales, and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. (For a chronological li ...
*
List of early-modern British women poets
This is an alphabetical list of female poets who were active in England and Wales, and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800. ''Nota bene'': Authors of poetry are the focus of this list, though many of these writer ...
*
List of female detective characters
This is a list of fictional female investigators from novels, short stories, radio, television, films and video games.
A
* Abigail Adams, future first lady, detects in 1770s Massachusetts in a series by Barbara Hambly (as Barbara Hamilton) ...
*
List of female detective/mystery writers
*
List of feminist literature
The following is a list of feminist literature, listed by year of first publication, then within the year alphabetically by title (using the English title rather than the foreign language title if available/applicable). Books and magazines are ...
*
List of literary awards
This list of literary awards from around the world is an index to articles about notable literary awards.
International awards
All nationalities & multiple languages eligible (in chronological order)
* Nobel Prize in Literature – since 1901 ...
*
List of modernist writers
Literary modernism has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America. Modernism is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse. Modernists experimented with literar ...
**
list of modernist women writers {{Short description, none
The term Modernism describes the modernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late ...
*
List of organizations for women writers
This is a list of organizations, conferences, and prizes for women writers.
Organizations and conferences
* Broad Universe
*Hedgebrook
*International Women's Writing Guild (1976-)
*Kali for Women (1984-)
*Kentucky Women Writers Conference (1979- ...
*
List of women rhetoricians
Within the field of rhetoric, the contributions of female rhetoricians have often been overlooked. Anthologies comprising the history of rhetoric or rhetoricians often leave the impression there were none. Throughout history, however, there have ...
*
List of women writers
* List of women writers (A–L)
* List of women writers (M–Z)
See also
*Feminist literary criticism
*Feminist science fiction
*Feminist theory
* Gender in science fiction
*List of biographical dictionaries of female writers
*List of early-mode ...
*
List of women's presses
This is a list of publishers dedicated either wholly or to a significant degree to publishing material written for, by, or about women. Many of them started during the " second wave" of feminism. The focus of this list is not on publishers which ma ...
Endnotes
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Writing In English
English-language literature
Feminist fiction
Feminist literature
History of literature
Literary criticism
Literary theory
Women's studies
fr:Femme de lettres