Economic Imperatives for Women's Writing in Early Modern Europe
Series: - Women Writers in History, Volume: 2
Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe delves into the early modern history of women’s authorship and literary production in Europe taking a material turn. The case studies included in the volume represent women writers from various European countries and comparatively reflect the nuances of their participation in a burgeoning commercial market for authors while profiting as much from patronage. From self-representation as professional writers to literary reception, the challenges of reputation, financial hardships, and relationships with editors and colleagues, the essays in this collection show from different theoretical standpoints and linguistic areas that gender biases played a far less limiting role in women’s literary writing than is commonly assumed, while they determined the relationship between moneymaking, self-representation, and publishing strategies.
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Nina Geerdink, Ph.D. (1983), Utrecht University, is Assistant Professor of Early Modern Dutch Literature at that university. She is a specialist in the seventeenth century and has published on women’s writing, social poetry and authorship. Carme Font Paz, Ph.D. (1972), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, is Lecturer of English Literature at that university, and Research Associate at the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She is a specialist in the seventeenth century and has published on women’s prophetic writing, poetry and intellectual history.
"Besides being valuable for future researches within the socio-ideological context of women’s writing closely intertwined with the personal element, with its clear and precise language, the book “Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe” could also be read outside the confines of academia.[...] With nicely distinguished parallels inside a large comparative European scope, the authors form a web of tentative studies of women writers in the process of transgressing the socially imposed limitations by making profit out of their literary activities and improving their economic status. The availability of this kind of co-working and comparative research gathered in one book, however, rates “Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Early Modern Europe” very highly."
- Marija Bulatović, Knjiženstvo. Journal for Studies in Literature, Gender and Culture, 8, 2018.
"There is obviously interest in and need for studies on women writers, as this volume is only the second in the new “Women Writers in History” series at Brill. It seems likely that the editors’ call for more research both into professionalization of writing in the early modern period and to use a comparative approach will be answered. It truly seems like this is only the beginning of research into the careers of professional women writers and in trying to recover their status as writers, something their contemporaries often tried to diminish."
- Valerie Schutte, EMWJ, Vol. 14 No. 2, 2020.
"...the essays give proof of women’s increasing economic success in publishing and of their transnational contributions to the expanding book trade and demonstrate the changes from women’s dependence on patronage to professional status. Yet they also reveal that women’s social position improved slowly."
- Anne Cruz, Renaissance Quarterly, 2021.
- Marija Bulatović, Knjiženstvo. Journal for Studies in Literature, Gender and Culture, 8, 2018.
"There is obviously interest in and need for studies on women writers, as this volume is only the second in the new “Women Writers in History” series at Brill. It seems likely that the editors’ call for more research both into professionalization of writing in the early modern period and to use a comparative approach will be answered. It truly seems like this is only the beginning of research into the careers of professional women writers and in trying to recover their status as writers, something their contemporaries often tried to diminish."
- Valerie Schutte, EMWJ, Vol. 14 No. 2, 2020.
"...the essays give proof of women’s increasing economic success in publishing and of their transnational contributions to the expanding book trade and demonstrate the changes from women’s dependence on patronage to professional status. Yet they also reveal that women’s social position improved slowly."
- Anne Cruz, Renaissance Quarterly, 2021.
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction: Women, Professionalisation, and Patronage Carme Font Paz and Nina Geerdink 2 Women Authors’ Reputation and Its Relationship to Money Earned: Some Early French Writers as Examples Suzan van Dijk 3 Words for Sale: Early Modern Spanish Women’s Literary Economy Nieves Baranda 4 Fighting for Her Profession: Dorothe Engelbretsdatter’s Discourse of Self-Defence Marie Nedregotten Sørbø 5 Writing for Patronage or Patronage for Writing? Two Case Studies in Seventeenth-Century and Post-Restoration Women’s Poetry in Britain Carme Font Paz 6 Possibilities of Patronage: The Dutch Poet Elisabeth Hoofman and Her German Patrons Nina Geerdink 7 Between Patronage and Professional Writing. The Situation of Eighteenth Century Women of Letters in Venice: The Example of Luisa Bergalli Gozzi Rotraud von Kulessa 8 From Queen’s Librarian to Voice of the Neapolitan Republic: Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel Irene Zanini-Cordi 9 “[S]ome employment in the translating Way”: Economic Imperatives in Charlotte Lennox’s Career as a Translator Marianna D’Ezio 10 Beating the Odds: Sophie Albrecht (1756–1840), a Successful Woman Writer and Publisher in Eighteenth-Century Germany Berit C.R. Royer Index
Academics and advanced students working in the field of early modern literature, history, gender studies, and anyone interested in early modern women’s writing, comparative literature, and socio-economic cultures .