Women and writing, c.1340-c.1650 : the domestication of print culture

TLDR

The transition from medieval manuscript to early printed book has been studied, yet women’s involvement has been largely overlooked, a gap this volume addresses. The volume examines women’s participation in book production and consumption through material evidence, authorial attribution, and analysis of letters, pamphlets, and almanacs, drawing on recent manuscript and book history scholarship. The studies reveal that women contributed as authors, engaged with authoritative texts, left tangible traces in printed volumes, and blurred the boundaries between public/private and manuscript/print spheres.

Abstract

The transition from medieval manuscript to early printed book is currently a major topic of academic interest, but has received very little attention in terms of women's involvement, a gap which the essays in this volume address. They add female names to the list of authors who participated in the creation of English literature, and examine women's responses to authoritative and traditional texts in revealing detail. Taking its cue from the advances made by recent work on manuscript culture and book history, this volume also includes studies of material evidence, looking at women's participation in the making of books, and the traces they left when they encountered actual volumes. Finally, studies of women's roles in relation to apparently ephemeral texts, such as letters, pamphlets and almanacs, challenge traditional divisions between public and private spheres as well as between manuscript and print. Dr Anne Lawrence-Mathers is Lecturer in History, University of Reading; Phillipa Hardman is Senior Lecturer in English, University of Reading. Contributors: Gemma Allen, Anna Bayman, James Daybell, Alice Eardley, Christopher Hardman, Phillipa Hardman, Elizabeth Heale, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Adam Smyth, Alison Wiggins, Graham Williams