Shakespeare's sisters how women wrote the Renaissance

"A remarkable work about women writers in the Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period and brings us in close to four women who were committed to their craft before there was any possibility of "a room of one's own." In a sparkling and engaging narrative of eve...

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Main Author: Targoff, Ramie (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.
Edition: First United States edition.
Subjects:
Summary: "A remarkable work about women writers in the Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period and brings us in close to four women who were committed to their craft before there was any possibility of "a room of one's own." In a sparkling and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespearean England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid 16th century into the private lives of four women writers working without acknowledgment at a time when women were legally the property of men. Some readers may have heard of Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, but few will have heard of Amelia Lanyer, the first woman to publish a book of poetry in the 17th century, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist, who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land, in one of England's most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own whose doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings them open to uncover the treasures left by these extraordinary women by helping us see the period in a fresh light and by supplying an expanded reading of history and a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare's day"--
Physical Description: xiii, 316 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780525658030
0525658033
9781984899514
1984899511
Author Notes: RAMIE TARGOFF is the Jehuda Reinharz Professor of the Humanities, professor of English, and co-chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author, most recently, of Renaissance Woman , a biography of Vittoria Colonna, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.