Margaret Cavendish

Emma L. E. Rees

Manchester University Press, 2003 - Literary Criticism - 218 pages

Margaret Cavendish was one of the most prolific, complex and misunderstood writers of the seventeenth century. A contemporary of Descartes and Hobbes, she was fascinated by philosophical, scientific and imaginative advances, and struggled to overcome the political and cultural obstacles which threatened to stop her engagement with such discourses. Rees examines how Cavendish engaged with the work of thinkers such as Lucretius, Plato, Homer and Harvey in an attempt to write her way out of the exile which threatened not only her intellectual pursuits but her very existence. What emerges is the image of an intelligent, audacious and intrepid early modern woman whose tale will appeal to specialists and general readers alike.

Contents

• Acknowledgements page: 1
• genre and exile: 24
• Lucretian resonance: 54
• Platonic paradigms and trial by genre: 80
• Pursued Chastity: 104
• The Animall Parliament: 134
• Fictions of the mind: 164
• Lucretius: 190

About the author

Emma L.E. Rees is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at The University of Chester

Bibliographic information

• Title: Margaret Cavendish
• Author: Emma L. E. Rees
• Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0719060729, 9780719060724
• Length: 218 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Modern / 16th Century; Literary Criticism / Renaissance; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Gender Identity; Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General; Literary Criticism / Women Authors; Philosophy / History & Surveys / General; Social Science / Women's Studies