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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But imagination when controlled gives a gift to every situation in life and throws a
moonlight radiance over every feeling . ... those studies which exercise the
judgment , and give stability to the character , is debilitated by reading romances
and ...
... Philanthropist , and Christian meek , / Often as thy name is told , / Grateful tears
shall bathe the cheek ” ( 184 ) — are poems supporting the Polish revolution and
a rare example of a pro - immigrant Irish poem — “ Give place , give place , our ...
We know the great Being of whom they are ignorant ; and well will it be for them
and for us , in a day that awaits us all , if yet , though late . . . we so give
countenance and aid to the missionary , that the light of revealed truth may cheer
the ...
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AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS AND THE WORK OF HISTORY, 1790-1860
User Review - KirkusBy revealing women's use of history in the making of it, Baym rebuts conventional wisdom about women's absence from national life in antebellum America. Baym (English/Univ. of Illinois, Champaign ... Read full review
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Women as Students of History II | 11 |
Maternal Historians Didactic Mothers | 29 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown