Before the insights of feminist criticism altered the way many writers are examined, Jane Austen and George Eliot were usually considered to be upholders of the status quo. The explosion in criticism in the last two decades, however, has reshaped and reinterpreted the canon, and has changed the way one academic teaches these two novelists. Using…

As the development of an individual's identity may be linked to the opportunity to write or to construct knowledge through participation in social dialogue, women historically have lacked self awareness. The 17th century British writer Elizabeth Cary illustrates the rhetorical difficulties that women face in appropriating dominant discourses to…

Research of the lives of almost unknown women such as Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) provides valuable perspectives on contemporary problems affecting women and establishes a tradition of female development and community. Cavendish published 14 volumes of poetry, prose fiction, plays, and a biography of her husband plus five volumes of natural…