American Women Writers and the Work of History, 1790-1860Just as she helped launch the rediscovery of literary texts by American women writers, Nina Baym now uncovers the work of history performed by over 150 writers in over 350 texts. Here she explores a world of important writing unknown even to most specialists. The novels, poems, plays, textbooks, and travel narratives written by women between 1790 and the Civil War defy current theories of women's writing that stress a female domain of the private, homebound, and emotional. History is inarguably public in its nature and these women wrote it. In doing so, they challenged the imaginative and intellectual boundaries that divided domestic and public worlds. They claimed on behalf of all women the rights to know and to speak about the world outside the home, as well as to circulate their knowledge and opinions among the public. Their work helped shape the enormous public interest in history characteristic of the antebellum nation, and ultimately to forge our national identity in the history of the world. Nina Baym deftly outlines the master narrative of history implied in women's writings of this period, and discusses in a completely revisioned context the emergence of women's history in public discourse.
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From inside the book
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... called " O'Connel's Heart " in her 1849 collection Flowers of Love and Memory . ) I have already noted that Lydia Sigourney , the most prolific and best- known antebellum woman poet , urged the study of history on women of all ages and ...
... called a barbarian and blood - thirsty assassin - the personification of cru- elty and revenge " ; but when the same deed is recorded of the American army , " it is called ' gallant , ' a ' brilliant achievement , ' a ' glorious exploit ...
... called " Indian novels " by women and men appeared at particular moments in the antebellum era because the topic was as central to the American present as to the American past . They flourished in the 1820s because of the impassioned ...
Contents
Women as Students of History II | 11 |
Maternal Historians Didactic Mothers | 29 |
History from the Divine Point of View | 46 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown