At the same time it demonstrates how the Revolution fostered many dreams and ambitions for women that would be doomed to disappointment in the repressive post-Revolutionary era.".

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a strategic campaign to recover the impact of Victorian women writers in the field of English literature. However, with the increased understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity in the twenty-first century, there is a need to extend this campaign beyond literary studies in order to recognise the role of women writers across the nineteenth century, a time that was intrinsically interdisciplinary in approach to scholarly writing and public intellectual engagement.

The history of women in the opera is a grand story. Women were singers and patrons, of course, but from opera's beginnings in Renaissance Italy, they were also opera composers and librettists. At first it was exclusively for the nobility. In the 19th century, with the emergence of the middle class and the rise of nationalism, there were more public theaters and opera seemed to be everywhere. This meant more opportunities for composers, though men predominated. This book focuses on the women, from the 16th century to today, who had successful careers in opera, many of them well known in their time.

Combining new musicology trends, formal musical analysis, and literary feminist recovery work, Leslie Ritchie examines rare poetic, didactic, fictional, and musical texts written by women in late eighteenth-century Britain. She finds instances of and resistance to contemporary perceptions of music as a form of social control in works by Maria Barth mon, Harriett Abrams, Mary Worgan, Susanna Rowson, Hannah Cowley, and Amelia Opie, among others. Relating women's musical compositions and writings about music to theories of music's function in the formation of female subjectivities during the latter half of the eighteenth century, Ritchie draws on the work of cultural theorists and cultural historians, as well as feminist scholars who have explored the connection between femininity and performance. Whether crafting works consonant with societal ideals of charitable, natural, and national order, or re-imagining their participation in these musical aids to social harmony, women contributed significantly to the formation of British cultural identity. Ritchie's interdisciplinary book will interest scholars working in a range of fields, including gender studies, musicology, eighteenth-century British literature, and cultural studies.

Drawing on three decades of feminist scholarship bent on rediscovering lost and abandoned women writers, Susan Staves provides a comprehensive history of women's writing in Britain from the Restoration to the French Revolution. This major work of criticism also offers fresh insights about women's writing in all literary forms, not only fiction, but also poetry, drama, memoir, autobiography, biography, history, essay, translation and the familiar letter. Authors celebrated in their own time and who have been neglected, and those who have been revalued and studied, are given equal attention. The book's organisation by chronology and its attention to history challenge the way we periodise literary history. Each chapter includes a list of key works written in the period covered, as well as a narrative and critical assessment of the works. This magisterial work includes a comprehensive bibliography and list of prevalent editions of the authors discussed.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.

Privileging both a transnational and a sociological approach, this volume explores the position of women in the early modern literary field, emphasising the international scope of their literature and examining their historical position, influence, network and dialogues.

Suisse romande depuis son mariage, mais ayant passé la première moitié de sa vie aux Pays-Bas où le français était devenu très tôt sa langue « naturelle », Belle de Zuylen / Isabelle de Charrière joue quelque peu les trublions dans nos habitudes académiques. Lire son œuvre – ses lettres, ses romans, ses pamphlets et ses pièces de théâtre – c’est accepter des retouches à notre tableau des Lumières qui n’en ressortira pas indemne ; c’est revoir les limites du champ de la critique littéraire, structuré et hiérarchisé depuis le XIXe siècle en fonction de littératures « nationales ». Bilingue (français et anglais), ce recueil contient des articles basés sur les contributions à un colloque international qui s’est tenu à l’Université d’Utrecht en avril 2005 pour commémorer le bicentenaire de la mort de l’écrivaine. As a Dutch woman who spent half her life in Switzerland and chose French as her writing language, Belle de Zuylen / Isabelle de Charrière parades a defiant attitude towards the constraints of the literary field. To read with care her letters, her novels, pamphlets and plays means accepting some modifications to our picture of the Enlightenment, and obliges us to question the limits of the field of literary criticism such as it has been structured since the nineteenth century, that is, along the lines of national canons. This bilingual volume (English and French) contains articles based on contributions to the international congress that was organized at Utrecht University in April 2005 on the occasion of the bicentennial of the author’s death.

Interest in early modern women writers is on the rise. However, familiarity with their works varies greatly from one country to another, and resources to assess their historical significance remain insufficient. Yet empirical evidence suggests that women writers who are no longer well-known today played surprisingly varied roles in the literary field of early modern Europe. The papers collected in this volume address early modern female authorship from the late Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century, ranging geographically from Portugal to Russia, and from Italy to Denmark. In particular, they focus on three themes: the creation of female spaces or communities; women's appropriation of existing or developing literary genres; and transnational perspectives on early modern women's writings. Contributors include: Vanda Anastácio, Bernadette Andrea, Mónica Bolufer, Philiep Bossier, Hans Bots, Kathleen Garay, Nina Geerdink, Perry Gethner, Elena Gretchanaia, Ineke Janse, Madeleine Jeay, Anne-Marie Mai, Christine Mongenot, Meredith Ray, Ina Schabert, and Lynn Lara Westwater.

In a profession that is dominated by male composers, SYWTS Music by Women serves as a compendium for singers and teaches of singing who wish to explore the vast repertoire of women written by women, cutting across a wide array of styles and genres. Hoch and Lister highlight the key composers and provide tips and tools for programming their music.