This study investigates the writing of women in the radical sects of the 17th century. This text introduces new primary sources and presents them in a way which is accessible to 20th-century scholars. The book offers a detailed study of the spiritual autobiographies and prophecies produced by Quaker, Baptist and Fifth Monarchist women, and asks how texts, in such numbers, were produced in a culture dismissive of women's writing. It also attempts to reveal how these hostile attitudes were manifested in the texts themselves. ...
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This study investigates the writing of women in the radical sects of the 17th century. This text introduces new primary sources and presents them in a way which is accessible to 20th-century scholars. The book offers a detailed study of the spiritual autobiographies and prophecies produced by Quaker, Baptist and Fifth Monarchist women, and asks how texts, in such numbers, were produced in a culture dismissive of women's writing. It also attempts to reveal how these hostile attitudes were manifested in the texts themselves. Each chapter introduces new material through a discussion of existing critical and theoretical work on the gendering of authors, texts and readers respectively. Finally, the appendices reproduce substantial selections from previously unavailable 17th-century texts discussed in the book, by Mary Cary, Jane Turner, Elinor Channell, Priscilla Cotton, and Dorothy Waugh.
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