The History of British Women's Writing, 1690 - 1750

SHARON ACHINSTEIN Reader in Renaissance English Literature, Oxford University, UK MELANIE BIGOLD Lecturer in English, Cardiff University, UK TONI BOWERS Associate Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, USA JILL CAMPBELL Professor of English, Yale University, USA E.J. CLERY Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature, University of Southampton, UK CHRISTINE GERRARD Lecturer in English, University of Oxford, UK KATHRYN R. KING Lecturer in English, University of Montevallo, USA MOYRA HASLETT Senior Lecturer in English, Queen's University, Belfast, UK SHAWN LISA MAURER Associate Professor of English, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA KAREN O'BRIEN Professor of English Literature, University of Warwick, UK JANE SHAW Reader in Church History, Oxford University, UK JANE SPENCER Professor of English, Exeter University, UK KATE WILLIAMS Independent Scholar

This volume charts the most significant changes for a literary history of women in a period that saw the beginnings of a discourse of 'enlightened feminism'. It reveals that women engaged in forms old and new, seeking to shape and transform the culture of letters rather than simply reflect or respond to the work of their male contemporaries.This volume charts the most significant changes for a literary history of women in a period that saw the beginnings of a discourse of 'enlightened feminism'. It reveals that women engaged in forms old and new, seeking to shape and transform the culture of letters rather than simply reflect or respond to the work of their male contemporaries.