Margaret Cavendish: Gender, Genre, Exile - Softcover

Rees, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719099323 ISBN 13: 9780719099328

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Margaret Cavendish was one of the most prolific, complex and misunderstood writers of the seventeenth century. A contemporary of Descartes and Hobbes, she was fascinated by philosophical, scientific and imaginative advances, and struggled to overcome the political and cultural obstacles which threatened to stop her engagement with such discourses. The result of this struggle is a body of work of twenty two opulent editions, some of which were extraordinary not only because they were penned by a woman, but because they were published in the 1650s when Cavendish and her husband were in exile on the continent. Persona non grata, Cavendish nonetheless managed to make her voice heard. Quite what that voice was saying becomes more evident in Emma Ree's study where literary genre is seen to be the key to an understanding of it. Emma Rees examines how Cavendish engaged with the work of thinkers such as Lucretius, Plato, Homer and Harvey in an attempt to write her way out of the exile which threatened not only her intellectual pursuits but her very existence. What emerges is the image of an intelligent, audacious and intrepid early modern woman whose tale will appeal to specialists and general readers alike.

About this title

About the Author

Emma L. E. Rees is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Chester College -- .

From the Back Cover

Margaret Cavendish was one of the most prolific, complex and misunderstood writers of the seventeenth century. A contemporary of Descartes and Hobbes, she was fascinated by philosophical, scientific and imaginative advances, and struggled to overcome the political and cultural obstacles which threatened to stop her engagement with such discourses.

The result of this struggle is a body of work of twenty two opulent editions, some of which were extraordinary not only because they were penned by a woman, but because they were published in the 1650s when Cavendish and her husband were in exile on the continent. Persona non grata, Cavendish nonetheless managed to make her voice heard. Quite what that voice was saying becomes more evident in Emma Ree's study where literary genre is seen to be the key to an understanding of it.

Emma Rees examines how Cavendish engaged with the work of thinkers such as Lucretius, Plato, Homer and Harvey in an attempt to write her way out of the exile which threatened not only her intellectual pursuits but her very existence. What emerges is the image of an intelligent, audacious and intrepid early modern woman whose tale will appeal to specialists and general readers alike.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719099323
• ISBN 13: 9780719099328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224