Lost Property: The Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380-1589University of Chicago Press, 2000 - 274 pages The English literary canon is haunted by the figure of the lost woman writer. In our own age, she has been a powerful stimulus for the rediscovery of works written by women. But as Jennifer Summit argues, "the lost woman writer" also served as an evocative symbol during the very formation of an English literary tradition from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. Lost Property traces the representation of women writers from Margery Kempe and Christine de Pizan to Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, exploring how the woman writer became a focal point for emerging theories of literature and authorship in English precisely because of her perceived alienation from tradition. Through original archival research and readings of key literary texts, Summit writes a new history of the woman writer that reflects the impact of such developments as the introduction of printing, the Reformation, and the rise of the English court as a literary center. A major rethinking of the place of women writers in the histories of books, authorship, and canon-formation, Lost Property demonstrates that, rather than being an unimaginable anomaly, the idea of the woman writer played a key role in the invention of English literature. |
Contents
I | 1 |
III | 22 |
IV | 23 |
V | 33 |
VI | 39 |
VII | 49 |
VIII | 60 |
IX | 61 |
XVII | 111 |
XVIII | 126 |
XIX | 138 |
XX | 157 |
XXI | 162 |
XXII | 163 |
XXIII | 173 |
XXIV | 180 |
Other editions - View all
Lost Property: The Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380-1589 Jennifer Summit Limited preview - 2000 |
Lost Property: The Woman Writer and English Literary History, 1380-1589 Jennifer Summit No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Anelida and Arcite Anne Askew aristocratic Arte of English authorship Bale Bale's Boke books of hours British Library Cambridge Univ Caxton Chaucer Christine de Pizan circulation Cité des Dames courtly Criseyde's Dame Christine devotional Dido Dido's Doubt of Future early modern edition Elizabeth emblem England English literary history English literature English Poesie Fastolf Fifteen Oes fifteenth figure Future Foes gender genre Henry Pepwell history of women House of Fame indulgence John John Bale K. B. McFarlane Ladies late medieval letters literary authority literary culture literary tradition literate London loss male manuscript Margery Kempe Mary masculine medieval and early Middle Ages Middle English Morale Prouerbes Oxford patron Pepwell Pepwell's poem poet poetic poetry prayer Press printers produced Protestant Puttenham Pynson Queen of Scots readers reading Reformation religious Renaissance sixteenth century textual tion trans translation Troilus and Criseyde Troilus's Tudor vernacular William Worcester woman writer woodcut