Women of Faith and the Pen, a transatlantic Reading

Abstract

‘Women of Faith and the Pen’ asserts that a particular situation existed where the sixteenth-century transatlantic literary marketplace would and indeed did open for female authors who successfully demonstrated three qualities in their writing. The marketplace accepted female authors with an acute Biblical familiarity, the wit to interact with other dynamic authors of their period, and the willingness to make their readers and critics aware of the previous two conditions. Anna Maria van Schurman of the Netherlands, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz of New Spain, and Anne Bradstreet of the Massachusetts Bay Colony all experienced the literary success that came with being identified as a ‘tenth muse,’ a woman of genius and value in her respected culture. This essay opens a conversation about the strategies of these tenth muses and suggests future veins of inquiry to bring writers such as these together across colonial situations.