[detail from William Hogarth's "Idle 'Prentice Executed at Tyburn" of the Industry and Idleness (1747) series. Click detail for whole image.]

coming to terms:

I wasn't sure what to call this page: "women's writing," "women writing," or something else. The field has moved beyond the straightforward recuperation of texts written by women, many lost (or mislaid) for decades or centuries and recently found by the diligence and commitment of feminist scholars. There is still an important place for courses with titles like "Writing by Women"–at least until every English major knows who Margery Kempe is—but in my own work I have come to prefer looking at women's writing within a wider historical context: how do women's texts relate to literary culture more generally? to the publishing marketplace? Only by asking such questions can we hope to understand the cultural production of, say, a ballad seller such as the one in the illustration above: an itinerant street hawker who may or may not have had a hand in writing, or at least shaping, some of the texts she performed and sold. This is also "women's writing"; women have always "written"—in the sense of making culture—in one way or another.

courses:

• While all of my courses have a significant component of women's writing, here are the courses specifically about women/gender that I teach. Follow the links for fuller descriptions:
  • engl 3621: writing by women 1 (winter 2004)
  • engl 3714: special topics: women in restoration and 18thc theatre (scheduled for winter 2005)
  • engl 3722: contemporary science fiction: gender and sexuality (fall 2003)
• The following courses will be offered periodically:
  • engl 6xxx: women on stage in the long eighteenth century (graduate course; tentatively scheduled for fall 2005)
  • engl 6383: women writing, 1660-1780 (graduate course; last taught fall 2001)

links:

• for links about women and writing, go to the links page
• for various reviews and articles, go to vitae
• for other courses about women's writing, feminist theory, etc., go to Courses on the English site