American Women Writers to 1800

Product DescriptionAmerican Women Writers to 1800 advances our knowledge of early American culture. Including works by more than ninety women, many of whom have never before been published, this ambitious anthology captures the cultural and individual diversity of women's experiences in early America. It bothcomplements and extends earlier studies of colonial and Revolutionary America, with writings that observe the natural features and resources of the "New World"; the proliferation of religious movements; racial relations between Native Americans, African Americans, and European settlers; andpatriotic and loyalist sympathies during the Revolutionary years. Selections also confront distinctly feminist issues, focusing on women's education; the psychological complexities of girlhood, marriage and childbirth; sexuality; the legal status of women; and the rise of feminist philosophies atthe end of the eighteenth century. Along with better known Massachusetts writers such as Bradstreet, Rowlandson, and Knight, this collection presents works by authors from other New England, mid-Atlantic, and southern colonies, by African American and Native American women, and by women who exploredthe frontier regions. An impressive variety of genres is represented, with extensive selections of memoirs, letters, diaries, poetry, captivity narratives, Native American narratives, essays, sermons, autobiographies, novels, dramas, and scientific and political tracts. Brief biographicalintroductions to each author, explanatory footnotes, and a comprehensive index and bibliography impress modern scholarship upon this valuable literary collection and offer fertile ground for a radical rethinking of early American women's lives and writings, while challenging our assumptionsregarding early America itself.Review"Harris has compiled a comprehensive compendium of diverse writers and provided insightful commentary that enables the reader to place writers and texts within a larger framework. Useful for undergraduates and graduate students." Rosalee Stilwell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania"The many facets and forms of early American women's lives and literature are explored in this fascinating and welcome anthology, a significant contribution to the recovery and critical examination of women's texts. In a lengthy introduction, Harris offers a feminist framework through which the reader may situate the literary aesthetics of such prevalent forms of women's texts as letters and journals. Even without such theoretical apparatus, this anthology is valuable for its focus on a neglected period of women's literature and its diversity of writers and literary forms. [Recommended for] all collections." CHOICE"Not merely content to assemble forgotten women's writing, Harris teaches a new paradigm of reading derived from the domestic realities of women's lives and their literary productions. An exciting group of women's texts." Jeanne Holland, University of Wyoming"Harris's anthology breaks significantly new ground, not only by assembling so many writings by women, but by offering new ways to categorize those writings. It will become indispensable to scholars of early American writings, and early American women's writings, in particular." Dana Nelson, University of Kentucky, author of The Word in Black and White"Students of American literature, history, and culture can draw upon Harris's anthology to enliven and enrich their teaching and research on Colonial America...." JASATAbout the AuthorSharon M. Harris, Associate Professor of English, University of Nebraska.
Author: Harris, Sharon M.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Binding: Paperback

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0195084535

ISBN-13: 9780195084535