Dr. Ema Vyroubalova
Early Modern Women Writers
Hilary Term 2015
This course brings together the most prominent women writers of the 16 th and 17th
centuries. The authors come from a fascinating variety of backgrounds: Mary Sidney
and Mary Wroth belonged to one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in
Elizabethan England; Elizabeth Cary was reduced to poverty following her conversion to
Catholicism; Katherine Phillips sided with the Royalists during the Civil War while her
husband was a Parliamentarian; Hannah Woolley ran a free grammar school and
earned money from her manuals on household management. At the same time, each of
the writers we will be reading in some form had to deal with prejudice against female
authorship and socio-economic conditions which were generally adverse to women
composing and publishing their works. We will discuss how the texts document these
challenges and how their authors managed to participate in the country’s maledominated literary culture while at the same time imagining and even creating
alternative female-centered communities.
Required Texts
*Early Modern Women's Writing: An Anthology 1560-1700, ed. Paul Salzman
(Oxford University Press, 2000) EMWW on syllabus
*Margaret Cavendish, The Convent of Pleasure and Other Plays, ed. Anne
Shaver (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999)
*Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World and Other Writings, ed. Kate Lilley
(Penguin Classics, 2005)
*Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam, ed. Karen Britland (New Mermaids,
2010)
*All other texts will either be distributed in class or you will be directed to them
online
SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
Wednesday INTRODUCTION
Friday Isabella Whitney selections and biography in EMWW; Introduction to
Early Modern English women writers and to Whitney in Women Writers in
Renaissance England (ed. R. Martin, Longman 1997); Virginia Woolf: “A Room of
One’s Own” (excerpt)
--WEEK 2
Wednesday Aemilia Lanyer: “To the Queen” and “To all Virtuous Ladies in
General” (EMWW 21-28) Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, including “To the Virtuous
Reader” (EMWW 46-56); “The Description of Cookham” (EMWW 56-62)
Friday: Elizabeth I: selected poems, speeches, and letters from Elizabeth I,
Collected Works
--WEEK 3
Wednesday Mary Sidney: selected psalm translations and "The Doleful Lay of
Clorinda"
Friday Mary Wroth poetry selections from EMWW
--WEEK 4
Wednesday Mary Wroth: Love’s Victory (EMWW)
Friday selections from The Lady Falkland: Her Life (Cary’s biography by her
daughters)
--WEEK 5
Wednesday Elizabeth Cary: The Tragedy of Mariam: Acts 1 and 2
Friday Elizabeth Cary: The Tragedy of Mariam Acts 3,4,5
--WEEK 6
Wednesday Anne Clifford: selections from diaries in EMWW
Friday Elizabeth Jocelyn: selections from The Mother’s Legacy to her Unborn
Child and Elizabeth Clinton: selections from The Countess of Lincoln’s Nursery
--WEEK 7 STUDY WEEK; no class
--WEEK 8
Wednesday Hannah Wooley: selections from The Queen-Like Closet and The
Cook’s Guide
Friday Eleanor Davies, Priscilla Cotton, and Mary Cole: selections in EMWW
--WEEK 9
Wednesday Katherine Philips selections and biography in EMWW
Friday Margaret Cavendish: The Convent of Pleasure
--WEEK 10
Wednesday Margaret Cavendish: The Blazing World (To the Reader and Part 1)
Friday Margaret Cavendish: The Blazing World (Part 2 and Epilogue)
--WEEK 11
Wednesday Aphra Behn: The Wandering Beauty and poetry selections in
EMWW
Friday Aphra Behn: Oroonoko (text from The Norton Anthology of English
Literature)
--WEEK 12
Wednesday Field trip to Marsh’s Library
Friday EXAM REVIEW
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of the course a student should be able to:
1. Be familiar with the major English women writers of the early modern period and with
some of their writings in detail
2. Justify the usefulness of including early modern women writers in the study of English
literature
3. Recognize the major themes and issues in the assigned texts which set them apart from
early modern texts authored by men
4. Appreciate the historical and political factors which influenced early modern women’s
writing
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the literary genres covered in the course, including the
sonnet, psalm, country house poem, satire, tragedy, and romance
6. Analyze and interpret relevant passages in the texts studied
7. Write fluently and relevantly about the texts and topics covered in the course
8. Generate a range of relevant questions about the covered material
9. Know how to identify and access the most essential sources of information (reference
books, databases) about early modern women writers