Aphra Behn Studies

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Aphra Behn Studies
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Janet Todd
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:344
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 152
Category/GenreLiterary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780521119641
ClassificationsDewey:828.409
Audience
Undergraduate
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 17 September 2009
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Aphra Behn was England's first professional woman writer, but her status as a major author has only recently become clear. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, Behn was denigrated for her 'unwomanly' subject matter and intellectual immodesty. In the twentieth century she has been increasingly viewed as an important dramatist and poet of the Restoration and a founder of the English novel. This book sets Behn firmly in an historical context of political factions, theatre developments and colonial encounters, and includes chapters on each of the genres in which she wrote: drama, fiction, poetry and translation, and on other aspects of her life, from her publishing struggles to her involvement in American slavery. It is an important resource for those studying seventeenth-century English literature and drama, and to those interested in the development of women's writing.

Reviews

"This collection clearly conveys the centrality of Behn's gender as well as to the history of her reception, which is outlined by Todd in her introduction. Behn enters the canon emphatically as a woman. Todd's timely collection, embracing a variety of approaches and covering all aspects of Behn's literary output, makes an important contribution to this process." Albion "This collection is powerful evidence of the impact of the women's movement and the maturity of feminist scholarship." Modern Philology