Women's Wealth and Women's Writing in Early Modern England: 'Little Legacies' and the Materials of Motherhood

ISBN-13: 9781138276208 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 138 str.

Elizabeth Mazzola

Opis

Focusing on both literary and material networks, this book examines the nature of women's wealth in early modern England, as well as the ways that women's writing sought to manage and transmit this wealth. If material goods like jewels and cloth could substantiate powerful ties between mothers and daughters, Mazzola argues that literary artifacts like diaries, prayers and poetry similarly described and supported their ties.

Recenzje

'In this eloquent, evocative, and valuable book, Elizabeth Mazzola thoroughly ties women's writing into material culture in a specific and detailed manner, providing a needed focus on the material (needlework,writing, cloth, poetry, and letters) produced by four related women: Queen Elizabeth, Bess Hardwick, Mary Stuart, and Arbella Stuart. She shows that their relationships are intricate and complex, and traces the General evolution of the relationship of women and goods/writings from rich networks of affiliation to empty commercial connections as England moves towards a consumer economy.' Mary Ellen Lamb, Southern Illinois University, USA ’By approaching women’s literary history not through the context of male literary history but through social history, the book highlights the connections between literary writing and the artistic productions of women’s daily lives.’ Renaissance Quarterly ’... a brief, insightful, interesting study of the material conditions in the ’ways women’s writings in the early modern period concern their wealth’... As an interdisciplinary study, this is [a] valuable resource... Highly recommended.’ Choice ’... a vitally important, excellent study. Women's Wealth and Women's Writing in Early Modern England represents the very best of literary historical scholarship: it expands productively upon previous research, develops innovative interpretive concepts that might be applied fruitfully in other contexts, and reveals significant, previously overlooked connections among events, texts, people, and things. Mazzola's book makes crucial contributions to our understanding of early modern women's cultural production, the social and material history of the elite family and household, and the gendered dynamics of court life.’ Clio '[Mazzola's book] is a model of the use of interdisciplinary archival resources to interpret women's texts and the place of those texts in early modern English culture.' Journal of British Studie

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction; Miroir or glasse; Borrowed robes; 'Manifest housekeepers'; Strange bedfellows; 'Girles aflote'; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Elizabeth Mazzola is Professor of English, City College of the City University of New York, USA