American Women Writers to 1800 (Paperback)

by Sharon M. Harris (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Harris has compiled a comprehensive compendium of diverse writers and provided insightful commentary that enables the reader to place writers and texts within a larger framework. Useful for undergraduates and graduate students."--Rosalee Stilwell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

"The many facets and forms of early American women's lives and literature are explored in this fascinating and welcome anthology, a significant contribution to the recovery and critical examination of women's texts. In a lengthy introduction, Harris offers a feminist framework through which the reader may situate the literary aesthetics of such prevalent forms of women's texts as letters and journals. Even without such theoretical apparatus, this anthology is valuable for its focus on a neglected period of women's literature and its diversity of writers and literary forms. [Recommended for] all collections."--CHOICE

"Not merely content to assemble forgotten women's writing, Harris teaches a new paradigm of reading derived from the domestic realities of women's lives and their literary productions. An exciting group of women's texts."--Jeanne Holland, University of Wyoming

"Harris's anthology breaks significantly new ground, not only by assembling so many writings by women, but by offering new ways to categorize those writings. It will become indispensable to scholars of early American writings, and early American women's writings, in particular."--Dana Nelson, University of Kentucky, author of The Word in Black and White

"Students of American literature, history, and culture can draw upon Harris's anthology to enliven and enrich their teaching and research on Colonial America...."--JASAT

Product Description
This anthology advances the ongoing process of filling documentary and intellectual gaps in our knowledge of early American culture. Including the writings of more than ninety women (many of whom have never before been published), the anthology captures cultural and individual diversity in early America. The collection both complements and extends earlier studies of colonial and revolutionary America with works that observe the natural resources of the "New World", the proliferation of religious movements, racial relations between Native Americans, African-Americans, and European settlers, and patriotic and loyalist sympathies during the Revolutionary years. Other issues raised include themes such as women's education, girlhood, childbirth, sexuality, the legal status of women, domestic economy, and the rise of feminist philosophies at the end of the 18th century. This anthology offers rich ground for a radical rethinking of early American women's lives and writings, and challenges our assumptions about early America itself.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195084535
• ISBN-13: 978-0195084535
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,311,950 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)