Women, Authorship and Literary Culture 1690 - 1740

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The dominant model of female authorship from 1690 to 1740 is London-centred, professional and fiction-oriented. In this engaging study, Sarah Prescott argues that alternative contexts for publication and different models of authorship were equally influential in shaping women's involvement in literary culture. In addition to acknowledging the impact of literary London on the careers, images and publication patterns of a variety of women writers, Prescott stresses the importance of provincial networks and non-metropolitan literary systems. The focus on alternative locations and contexts as influences on women writers does not mean that the commercial side of female authorship is neglected. Rather, women could use provincialism, and all it implied, as a way to shape their literary authority and market their work. This study provides an exciting and thought-provoking revision of our current conceptions of women's participation in literary culture Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: Relocating Women’s Literary History....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Authorship for Women: Careers and Contexts....Pages 15-38 Negotiating Authorship: Women’s Self-Representations....Pages 39-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Marketing the Woman Writer: Commercial Strategies....Pages 69-102 Making a Living: Booksellers, Patronage and Subscription....Pages 103-138 Front Matter....Pages 139-139 Gender, Authorship and Whig Poetics....Pages 141-166 Provincial Networks, Dissenting Connections and Noble Friends....Pages 167-186 Back Matter....Pages 187-237 Sarah Prescott discusses the careers of a number of key women writers of the period from 1690 to 1740, exploring the role played by geographical location, literary circles, patronage, the literary marketplace, and subscription publication in shaping patterns of female authorship. The volume also provides a wealth of detail about the circumstances which affected the careers of individual women as well as investigating the marketing, reception, and self-representation of women writers in general.