Over the past forty years, scholars have delved into archives to rediscover and recover texts authored by women before 1800. Such projects have broadened the scope of literary studies and led to the creation of new editions, expanded anthologies, and rich online resources – but they have largely overlooked earlier attempts to study women writers. In this talk, Dr. Erin E. Kelly (Department of English) will introduce you to early texts in our special collections that focus on exemplary women, many of them writers. She will show that Heywood’s Gynaikeion (1624), Ballard’s Memoirs of several ladies (1752), and other works reveal the process of discovering and celebrating of women in history has always been (and remains) a strategy for defining the ideal woman in the present.
For more information about the Treasures and Tea series please see: https://www.uvic.ca/library/locations/home/spcoll/events/index.php.
Date: February 19th: Finding Women in the Archives, talk by Dr. Erin Kelly (Department of English)
Time : 12:30 p.m.
Place: Room A003, Mearns Centre for Learning – McPherson Library
Free admission, but limited seating.
