English Women's Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700 : New Kingdoms of Womanhood

Name: English Women's Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700 : New Kingdoms of Womanhood
Brand: Alexandra Verini
SKU: 9783031009198
Price: 73.49 GBP
Availability: InStock

by Alexandra Verini

Title:

Author:

Alexandra Verini

Series (if any):

The New Middle Ages

Format:

Paperback

Number of pages:

223 pages, 6 Illustrations, black and white

Publisher:

Springer Nature B.V.

ISBN-13:

9783031009198

EAN:

9783031009198

Classifications:

Literature: history and criticism

Weight (g):

448

Dimensions (mm):

210 x 147 x 19

Publication Country:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

Condition:

New

Price:£73.49

1 copies in stock

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Description

English Women's Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700: New Kingdoms of Womanhood uncovers a tradition of women's utopianism that extends back to medieval women's monasticism, overturning accounts of utopia that trace its origins solely to Thomas More. As enclosed spaces in which women wielded authority that was unavailable to them in the outside world, medieval and early modern convents were self-consciously engaged in reworking pre-existing cultural heritage to project desired proto-feminist futures. The utopianism developed within the English convent percolated outwards to unenclosed women's spiritual communities such as Mary Ward's Institute of the Blessed Virgin and the Ferrar family at Little Gidding. Convent-based utopianism further acted as an unrecognized influence on the first English women's literary utopias by authors such as Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell. Collectively, these female communities forged a mode of utopia that drew on the past to imagine new possibilities for themselves as well as for their larger religious and political communities. Tracking utopianism from the convent to the literary page over a period of 300 years, New Kingdoms writes a new history of medieval and early modern women's intellectual work and expands the concept of utopia itself.