Stock image for illustration purposes only - book cover, edition or condition may vary.
Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850
Devoney Looser
€ 55.78
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850
Hardback. In illuminating the powerful and often poorly recognized legacy of the British women writers who spurred a marketplace revolution in their earlier years only to find unanticipated barriers to acceptance in later life, Looser opens up new scholarly territory in the burgeoning field of feminist age studies. Num Pages: 252 pages, 2, 2 black & white halftones. BIC Classification: 2AB; 3JF; 3JH; DSBD; DSBF. Category: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 237 x 151 x 20. Weight in Grams: 490.
This groundbreaking study explores the later lives and late-life writings of more than two dozen British women authors active during the long eighteenth century. Drawing on biographical materials, literary texts, and reception histories, Devoney Looser finds that far from fading into moribund old age, female literary greats such as Anna Letitia Barbauld, Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Catharine Macaulay, Hester Lynch Piozzi, and Jane Porter toiled for decades after they achieved acclaim-despite seemingly concerted attempts by literary gatekeepers to marginalize their later contributions. Though these remarkable women wrote and published well into old age, Looser sees in their late careers the necessity of choosing among several different paths. These included receding into the background as authors of classics, adapting to grandmotherly standards of behavior, attempting to reshape masculinized conceptions of aged wisdom, or trying to create entirely new categories for older women writers. In assessing how these writers affected and were affected by the culture in which they lived, and in examining their varied reactions to the prospect of aging, Looser constructs careful portraits of each of her subjects and explains why many turned toward retrospection in their later works. In illuminating the powerful and often poorly recognized legacy of the British women writers who spurred a marketplace revolution in their earlier years only to find unanticipated barriers to acceptance in later life, Looser opens up new scholarly territory in the burgeoning field of feminist age studies.
Product Details
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press United States
Number of pages
252
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2008
Condition
New
Weight
489g
Number of Pages
252
Place of Publication
Baltimore, MD, United States
ISBN
9780801887055
SKU
V9780801887055
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-33
About Devoney Looser
Devoney Looser is a Professor of English at the University of Missouri and the author of British Women Writers and the Writing of History, 1670-1820, also published by Johns Hopkins.
Reviews for Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850
Compelling and interesting... Like a latter-day Isaac D'Israeli, Looser explores many byways of 18th- and early-19th century authorship and publication. Accordingly, specialists in those periods will find here a trove of useful, thought-provoking historical anecdote.
Choice
So meticulously researched and her prose so pleasantly lucid and unassuming... Looser crafts a convincing argument for the reexamination of women writers like Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Porter, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, paying closer attention to their later lives and works.
Jeanine M. Casler
Papers on Language and Literature
Engaging and clearly written, Looser's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what it meant to be an elderly female writer in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries while also identifying important considerations of fact and methodology often overlooked without the perspective of age studies.
Kay Heath
Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
The book's lively introduction offers plenty of promise. Looser conveys considerable enthusiasm about her subject and the impressive archival research she conducted for Women Writers and Old Age. Throughout the six chapters, Looser maintains a lucid and engaging style that many contemporary scholars might well emulate.
Marilyn Roberts
Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer
Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility.
Paula R. Backscheider
Studies in English Literature
Devoney Looser has written an extremely important book that sensitively explores ageism and the literary marketplace just when the Mothers of the Novel were writing their final chapters.
Laurie Kaplan
JASNA News
Elegant and original study... Looser not only offers a fresh perspective on individual reputations but raises intriguing questions about the procession of 'generations' in literary history.
Elizabeth Eger
Times Literary Supplement
One of the strengths of Women Writers and Old Age is Looser's uncompromising willingness to acknowledge how difficult it was for older women writers to triumph over the cultural forces ranged against them.
Roxanne Eberle
Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas
This is a thought-provoking... contribution not only to old age and gender studies but also to the literary history of the long 18th century.
Anne-Julia Zwierlein
Zeitschrift fuer Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Wide-ranging and scrupulous book explores a neglected and fascinating subject.
Caroline Gonda
Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Although Looser's assumptions may not be shared by every reader, the book is so well informed and ends with such a vast bibliography that everyone stands to learn by it.
Marialuisa Bignami
Modern Language Review
Women Writers in Old Age, 1750-1850, provides a valuable contribution to the nascent field of study.
Patricia Murphy
Nineteenth-Century Literature
With Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850... Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility.
Paula R. Backscheider
Studies in English Literature
A groundbreaking study of the late careers of women writers.
Year's Work in English Studies
A well-written, imaginative, carefully researched, and fascinating study.
Lisa Vargo
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
A pioneering effort in what will undoubtedly prove to be another useful perspective from which to consider literary history.
Susan Staves
Studies in Romanticism
Groundbreaking in a variety of ways... This work is well written, thoroughly (and pretty amazingly) researched, and presents a convincing critical argument not only for its subject, but also for the continuation of studies about the subject.
Kit Kincade
Eighteenth Century: Current Bibliography
Choice
So meticulously researched and her prose so pleasantly lucid and unassuming... Looser crafts a convincing argument for the reexamination of women writers like Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Porter, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, paying closer attention to their later lives and works.
Jeanine M. Casler
Papers on Language and Literature
Engaging and clearly written, Looser's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what it meant to be an elderly female writer in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries while also identifying important considerations of fact and methodology often overlooked without the perspective of age studies.
Kay Heath
Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
The book's lively introduction offers plenty of promise. Looser conveys considerable enthusiasm about her subject and the impressive archival research she conducted for Women Writers and Old Age. Throughout the six chapters, Looser maintains a lucid and engaging style that many contemporary scholars might well emulate.
Marilyn Roberts
Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer
Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility.
Paula R. Backscheider
Studies in English Literature
Devoney Looser has written an extremely important book that sensitively explores ageism and the literary marketplace just when the Mothers of the Novel were writing their final chapters.
Laurie Kaplan
JASNA News
Elegant and original study... Looser not only offers a fresh perspective on individual reputations but raises intriguing questions about the procession of 'generations' in literary history.
Elizabeth Eger
Times Literary Supplement
One of the strengths of Women Writers and Old Age is Looser's uncompromising willingness to acknowledge how difficult it was for older women writers to triumph over the cultural forces ranged against them.
Roxanne Eberle
Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas
This is a thought-provoking... contribution not only to old age and gender studies but also to the literary history of the long 18th century.
Anne-Julia Zwierlein
Zeitschrift fuer Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Wide-ranging and scrupulous book explores a neglected and fascinating subject.
Caroline Gonda
Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Although Looser's assumptions may not be shared by every reader, the book is so well informed and ends with such a vast bibliography that everyone stands to learn by it.
Marialuisa Bignami
Modern Language Review
Women Writers in Old Age, 1750-1850, provides a valuable contribution to the nascent field of study.
Patricia Murphy
Nineteenth-Century Literature
With Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750-1850... Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility.
Paula R. Backscheider
Studies in English Literature
A groundbreaking study of the late careers of women writers.
Year's Work in English Studies
A well-written, imaginative, carefully researched, and fascinating study.
Lisa Vargo
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
A pioneering effort in what will undoubtedly prove to be another useful perspective from which to consider literary history.
Susan Staves
Studies in Romanticism
Groundbreaking in a variety of ways... This work is well written, thoroughly (and pretty amazingly) researched, and presents a convincing critical argument not only for its subject, but also for the continuation of studies about the subject.
Kit Kincade
Eighteenth Century: Current Bibliography