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.

Autorentext
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

Inhalt
Series Preface Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Chronology Introduction; R.Ballaster PART ONE: DEBATES Woman's Place; K.O'Brien Luxury; E.Clery Country and City; C.Gerrard PART TWO: TRANSFORMATIONS The Politics and Aesthetics of Dissent; S.Achinstein The Scriblerian Project; J.Campbell The Rise of the Novel; K.Williams PART THREE: WRITING MODES Scribal and Print Publication; K.King Drama; J.Spencer Periodical; S.L.Maurer Letters and Learning; M.Bigold PART FOUR: WORLDS OF FEELING Religious Love; J.Shaw Erotic love; T.Bowers Friendship/Companionate Love; M.Haslett Critical Review Bibliography Index