Feminism and Renaissance Studies

Oxford Readings in Feminism Series Editors: Teresa Brennan and Susan James Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main lines of debate in the field. Ever since the publication of Joan Kellys Did Women have a Renaissance? in 1977, feminist historians and critics have been challenging the claims traditionally made for the liberating effects of the intellectual and artistic energies released by the European Renaissance. By analysing the work of gender in the evaluative languages of traditional Renaissance historiography, and by finding strategies for restoring the agency of women to the historical account, feminist scholars have helped to transform the object of Renaissance Studies across a range of disciplines. This collection brings together classic and more recent essays by feminist scholars in art, music, intellectual and social history, and the literature of the European vernaculars. It offers students and teachers a uniquely accessible introduction to the difference that academic feminism has made to the study of a period often claimed to be foundational to European modernity.

Lorna Hutson is Professor of English Literature at the University of Hull. She is the author of Thomas Nashe in Context (1989), and The Userer's Daughter (1994).