Kirjahaku

The English literary canon is haunted by the figure of the lost woman writer. She has, of course, been a powerful stimulus for the 20th-century rediscovery of works written by women. But as Jennifer Summit argues, "the lost woman writer" also served as an evocative symbol during the very formation of an English literary tradition from the 14th through the 16th centuries. Examining the history of the representations of women writers from Margery Kempe and Christine de Pizan to Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Summit shows how the woman writer came to embody alienation from tradition. Chaucer, for instance, used the figure of the woman writer to dramatize the problems of writing outside the dominant literary culture, while the reformation writer John Bale cast women writers as proto-Protestant icons of opposition to the Catholic church. Bringing together original archival research with new readings of key literary texts, Summit provides a revisionary account of the woman writers' role in English literary history.

The English literary canon is haunted by the figure of the lost woman writer. She has, of course, been a powerful stimulus for the 20th-century rediscovery of works written by women. But as Jennifer Summit argues, "the lost woman writer" also served as an evocative symbol during the very formation of an English literary tradition from the 14th through the 16th centuries. Examining the history of the representations of women writers from Margery Kempe and Christine de Pizan to Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Summit shows how the woman writer came to embody alienation from tradition. Chaucer, for instance, used the figure of the woman writer to dramatize the problems of writing outside the dominant literary culture, while the reformation writer John Bale cast women writers as proto-Protestant icons of opposition to the Catholic church. Bringing together original archival research with new readings of key literary texts, Summit provides a revisionary account of the woman writers' role in English literary history.

In Jennifer Summit's account, libraries are more than inert storehouses of written tradition; they are volatile spaces that actively shape the meanings and uses of books, reading, and the past. Considering the two-hundred-year period between 1431, which saw the foundation of Duke Humfrey's famous library, and 1631, when the great antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton died, "Memory's Library" revises the history of the modern library by focusing on its origins in medieval and early modern England. Summit argues that the medieval sources that survive in English collections are the product of a Reformation and post-Reformation struggle to redefine the past by redefining the cultural place, function, and identity of libraries. By establishing the intellectual dynamism of English libraries during this crucial period of their development, "Memory's Library" demonstrates how much current discussions about the future of libraries can gain by reexamining their past.

In Jennifer Summit's account, libraries are more than inert storehouses of written tradition; they are volatile spaces that actively shape the meanings and uses of books, reading, and the past. Considering the two-hundred-year period between 1431, which saw the foundation of Duke Humfrey's famous library, and 1631, when the great antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton died, "Memory's Library" revises the history of the modern library by focusing on its origins in medieval and early modern England. Summit argues that the medieval sources that survive in English collections are the product of a Reformation and post-Reformation struggle to redefine the past by redefining the cultural place, function, and identity of libraries. By establishing the intellectual dynamism of English libraries during this crucial period of their development, "Memory's Library" demonstrates how much current discussions about the future of libraries can gain by reexamining their past.