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Gendered Discourses in Front Matter of Literary Publications by Dutch Female Authors (1600-1800)

    Activity: Talk or presentation › Poster/paper presentation › Academic

    Description

    Women writing and especially publishing literary texts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did not perform a role that fitted their gender. Therefore, front matter (such as prefaces, dedications, laudatory poems) in female-authored print-publications is an important source for obtaining insight in gendered discourses on authorship in the early modern period. Whereas male authors obtained authority through the publication of their books, women’s authority had to be shaped and defended actively before their publications could be socially and culturally accepted.

    In our paper, we present research conducted on the basis of our database of front matter from all known literary print-publications by women writers from the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Low Countries (208 publications, circa 500 paratexts). We analysed discourses about for example women’s literary careers, female authority and knowledgeability, and community-building, and we argue these discourses have in common a gendered ‘strategy of inversion’: women’s weaknesses were presented as empowering.
    Period1 Apr 2022
    Event titleRSA Annual conference
    Event typeConference
    LocationDublin, IrelandShow on map
    Degree of RecognitionInternational