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The Polemics of Rachel Speght

Rachel Speght author Barbara Kiefer Lewalski editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:5th Dec '96

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The Polemics of Rachel Speght cover

Rachel Speght (1597?-?) is the first Englishwoman to identify herself, unapologetically and by name, as a polemicist and critic of contemporary gender ideology. Her tract, A Mouzell for Melastomus (1617), is at once a spirited answer to Joseph Swetnam's very popular treatise attacking women (1617) and also a serious effort to stake women's claim to prevailing Protestant discourse of biblical exegesis, forcing it to yield a more expansive and more suitable concept of women's nature and role. Her volume of poetry, Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed (1612), includes a long memento mori meditation and an allegorical dream vision that recounts her own rapturous encounter with learning. Both vigorously defend women's education and the encouragement of women's talent.

...it has considerable interest for gender historians. * Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 *
...it has considerable interest for gender historians. * Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 *

ISBN: 9780195086140

Dimensions: 217mm x 143mm x 16mm

Weight: 278g

144 pages