ERICA LONGFELLOW, Women and Religious Writing in Early Modern England. Pp. ix+241. Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 45.00 (ISBN 0 521 83758 8).

Abstract

ERICA LONGFELLOW's book makes a major contribution to the field of early modern women's writing. Like other critics, such as Danielle Clarke, who have urged a more nuanced reading of categories and subject positions in this period, Longfellow argues against notions that women who wrote were always chafing against dictates to be chaste, silent, and obedient. Longfellow also asks incisive questions about our own critical investment in certain terminology (such as public and private), urging us to be more attentive to the women and their contexts. Taking as her focus five women writers from the early to mid seventeenth century, Longfellow analyses how their use of the Biblical ‘mystical marriage metaphor’ opens up possibilities for the negotiation of gender roles. The scriptural idea that Christ's love for his spouse (the Church, or the individual believer) is like that of a husband for his wife led to confusion about the gender of the spouse and about how the earthly roles of husband and wife were meant to parallel divine love. Longfellow argues persuasively that this confusion allowed women writers to claim authority for their own religious writing.