| This course will intervene in the history of early modern women’s writing. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England, women wrote in a diverse array of genres and circulated their works in print and manuscript. However, almost none of this work became part of the historical literary canon, and even today, canon-making anthology editors continue to marginalize and exclude work by women. So where Shakespeare’s plays and poetry continue to inspire, in addition to scholarly analyses, a diverse array of contemporary films and books, work by his female contemporaries has a very thin reception history.This course will respond to this perpetual occlusion by making a future for early modern women’s writing. It will read poetry, drama, and fiction by early modern women that considers gender, same sex desire, colonialism, race, and ecology. It will also examine some of the few contemporary responses to that work. In response, students will strive to create public, creative, and critical projects that will bring this interesting literature to life in our own time and place. Must be a graduate student in English. |
