Women, Writing, History, 1640-1740

Part 1 Women: discourse so unsavoury - women's published writings of the 1650s; the daughters of Behn and the problem of reputation; the native liberty of the subject - configurations of gender and authority in the works of Mary Chudleigh, Sarah Fyge Egerton and Mary Astell. Part 2 Writing: true state within - women's elergy 1640-1740; seizing the means of seduction - fiction and feminine identity in Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley; de-ciphering women and de-scribing authority - the writings of Mary Astell. Part 3 History: women's history? - writings by English nuns; producing the voice, consuming the body - women prophets of the 17th century; gender and status in dramatic discorse - Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle; the Jacobite vision of Mary Caesar.