Introduction

Abstract

Previous articleNext article FreeIntroductionPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe four articles in this issue address debates about early modern women’s authorship, refocus our attention on forgotten historical women, assess their forays into male-dominated literary worlds, and recover the works of religious women in genres generally deemed secular. Jake Arthur, in “Anne Lock or Thomas Norton? A Response to the Reattribution of the First Sonnet Sequence in English,” intervenes in the debate over “A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner” (1560), arguing that Anne Lock was the most likely author of this text. Estelle Paranque, in “Devotion, Influence, and Loyalty: Reevaluating Queen Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont’s Political and Diplomatic Role in Early Modern France,” uses the correspondence of this overshadowed sixteenth-century royal woman to counter the assumption that Louise did not engage in politics. Sara Diaz, in “Exceptional Bodies and Ludic Lovers: Humor, Disability, and the Grotesque in Margherita Costa’s Lettere amorose (1639),” explores Costa’s foray into the male-dominated world of Italian ludic literature through her epistolary collection, which features an unprecedented complementarity between sexed and comically embodied voices. Anna-Lisa Halling, in “Soror Maria do Céu’s Aves Illustradas: A Conduct Manual Legitimizing Female Authority for Early Modern Nuns through Storytelling,” turns to the Portuguese context to analyze an early eighteenth-century conduct manual for nuns that relies on narrative rather than rules to guide their comportment and spiritual advancement. Each of these early modern women authors reminds us of the myriad ways that women used writing as a mechanism not only to assert their ideas but also to demonstrate the centrality of women’s activities and influence in early modern society.Adding to this array of articles across disciplines and national cultures, we feature book reviews that cover women’s engagement in art, marriage, motherhood, court culture, rule, authorship, and patronage, to note only a few representative topics. The geographical range of the subjects covers England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries, as well as the classical worlds of Greece and Rome. We include a performance review of Margaret Cavendish’s The Unnatural Tragedy, performed at the University of Vienna in 2020, and welcome suggestions for reviews of other performances and multimedia productions.Finally, with the recent move to the University of Chicago Press and our new affiliation with the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender, we have taken the opportunity to bring some important changes to Early Modern Women. As some of you may have noticed in the last issue, we have engaged a more diverse set of scholars for our editorial and advisory boards. We are also working to ensure that upcoming issues will include more articles about non-European women of various religions, races, and classes, as well as racialized women within Europe. In volume 17, we will begin what we hope is an ongoing conversation about early modern women and race across disciplines. We are reaching out to a more diverse and global group of reviewers and are reviewing more books about women outside of Europe. We are excited about the future and believe that these changes are integral to ensuring that Early Modern Women continues to be a vibrant voice for scholars in our field. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal Volume 16, Number 2Spring 2022 Published for the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/718296 Views: 596 © 2022 Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.