English 4310: Renaissance Literature
Renaissance Women Writers
Course Description
and Objectives
In “A Room of One’s Own,”
Virginia Woolf bemoans the lack of female writers in the Renaissance England and
invents a tragic life story of “Shakespeare’s sister” Judith, whose talents go
to waste because of the patriarchal constraints denying women an opportunity to
fulfill themselves intellectually and creatively. Since 1929 when this essay was
first published, scholars and readers have discovered a plethora of texts
written by women in Renaissance England. In this class, we will read poetry,
drama, fiction, and non-fiction written by some of the most intriguing women of
the period: Queen Elizabeth I (a learned author of enigmatic poems and brilliant
speeches), Isabella Whitney (considered to be the first professional female poet
in England), Mary Wroth (the niece of Philip Sidney who responded, in her own
poetry and fiction, to her famous uncle’s sonnet sequence and prose romance),
Mary Sidney Herbert (Elizabeth I’s companion as well as Philip Sidney’s sister
and co-translator), Elizabeth Cary (the author of the first play in English
known to be written by a woman, a Catholic convert abandoned by her husband and
possibly a kidnapper of her sons), Aemilia Lanyer (a poet, mistress of a
courtier 45 years her senior, and a candidate for being the Dark Lady of
Shakespeare’s sonnets), Katherine Phillips (a poet who was referred to as “The
Matchless Orinda”), and finally, Margaret Cavendish (a prolific writer of drama
and fiction, extravagant dresser known to her contemporaries as “mad Madge”).
We will consider various
aspects of writings by women, using students’ individual interests as an
important factor in class discussion and research projects. The fundamental
goals of this course are to familiarize you with a number of Renaissance women
writers; to acquaint you with the genre variety; to improve your ability to read
literary texts closely and with understanding; to develop your skills at writing
about literature clearly and perceptively.