English Women's Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700

New Kingdoms of Womanhood
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-031-00916-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 223 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 428 g

Reihe: The New Middle Ages

English Women’s Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700: New Kingdoms of Womanhood uncovers a tradition of women’s utopianism that extends back to medieval women’s monasticism, overturning accounts of utopia that trace its origins solely to Thomas More. As enclosed spaces in which women wielded authority that was unavailable to them in the outside world, medieval and early modern convents were self-consciously engaged in reworking pre-existing cultural heritage to project desired proto-feminist futures. The utopianism developed within the English convent percolated outwards to unenclosed women's spiritual communities such as Mary Ward's Institute of the Blessed Virgin and the Ferrar family at Little Gidding. Convent-based utopianism further acted as an unrecognized influence on the first English women’s literary utopias by authors such as Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell. Collectively, these female communities forged a mode of utopia that drew on the past to imagine new possibilities for themselves as well as for their larger religious and political communities. Tracking utopianism from the convent to the literary page over a period of 300 years, New Kingdoms writes a new history of medieval and early modern women’s intellectual work and expands the concept of utopia itself.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Verini, Alexandra

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Feministische Theologie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Mittelalterliche & Scholastische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturtheorie: Poetik und Literaturästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Mirrors of our Lady: Utopia in the Medieval Convent.- Chapter 2: These Most Afflicted Sisters: Old and New Futures in Exiled English Convents.- Chapter 3: Not Yet: Aspirational Women’s Communities Beyond the Convent.- Chapter 4: Convents of Pleasure: English Women’s Literary Utopias.

Über Autor(innen)

Alexandra Verini is Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University. She has published articles in leading journals and collections of essays on women’s writing, friendship, and utopia. She leads the digital project earlywomenwriters.com and co-leads the research project Gender in Medieval Women’s Mysticism, which has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.