Course information

During the eighteenth century, writing increasingly became a commercial activity as the paradigm for print production moved from one of patronage to one monitored by market forces. Women were important actors in this vibrant and relatively free print market. Nevertheless, the work of writing was viewed by many contemporaries as involving women in a public activity that was at odds with a gender ideology that tended to relegate them to the private sphere; indeed, the woman writer was at times compared to sex workers and actresses in her insistence on 'going public.' It is against this background that we will read a number of texts written by women, focusing on issues of authorship and authority, publication and publicity.