Religion, Reform, and Women's Writing in Early Modern England

Long considered marginal in early modern culture, women writers were actually central to the development of a Protestant literary tradition in England. Kimberly Anne Coles explores their contribution to this tradition through thorough archival research in publication history and book circulation; the interaction of women's texts with those written by men; and the traceable influence of women's writing upon other contemporary literary works. Focusing primarily upon Katherine Parr, Anne Askew, Mary Sidney Herbert, and Anne Vaughan Lok, Coles argues that the writings of these women were among the most popular and influential works of sixteenth-century England. This book is full of prevalent material and fresh analysis for scholars of early modern literature, culture and religious history.

Reviews & endorsements

"The paperback edition of Kimberly Anne Coles’s Religion, Reform, and Women’s Writing in Early Modern England (issued 2010) makes widely accessible (and affordable) the insights of this fascinating, provocative, and richly rewarding study....[It] utilizes an intriguing blend of materialist and formalist methodologies. Coles is as interested in how the figure of the woman writer is mobilized in contemporary religious and literary discourse as she is with women writers themselves...Coles offers a daring, meticulously researched, and sure-footed reassessment of the roles played by five women writers in the emerging literary culture of English Protestantism. In doing so, she provides signal contributions to the developing scholarship on early modern book history and challenges—in powerful and productive ways—several of our most entrenched beliefs about the roles played by men and women in the English Reformation."
-Patricia Pender, Huntington Library Quarterly

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Product details

• Date Published: February 2010
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521130127
• length: 264 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 15 mm
• weight: 0.39kg
• availability: Available