Eighteenth-Century Women Poets

Nation, Class, and Gender

Moira Ferguson author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:State University of New York Press

Published:16th Nov '95

Should be back in stock very soon

Eighteenth-Century Women Poets cover

Shows how eighteenth-century women's literature redefined nation and culture in class and gendered terms.

This book examines the poems of three Englishwomen-washerwoman Mary Collier, middle-class feminist polemicist Mary Scott, Bristol milkwoman Ann Yearsley, and Scottish dairywoman from Ayrshire, Janet Little. It questions how national identity might have influenced gender and class affiliations, and, reciprocally, how gender might have determined a nationalist impulse, particularly as it played out during the revolutionary period (1770-1800) in which most of the texts were written.

"I most admire this book's combination of a learned understanding of eighteenth-century British culture with a keen political astuteness and a sensitivity to the literary historical problems presented by working with women writers in the period. Ferguson brings her subjects alive through a judicious use of biographical and cultural contexts." — Donna Landry, Wayne State University

"It is a lively and engaging book which will be of crucial interest to both eighteenth-century scholars and students of women's literature. It is based on exemplary research, both bringing to light previously undocumented texts, and providing fresh contexts for other still relatively underdiscussed texts." — Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

ISBN: 9780791425121

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 236g

164 pages