Renaissance Englishwomen as Writers, Readers, and Patrons
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abstract
Until the end of the twentieth century, most scholars believed, following Virginia Woolfs fiction about the unhappy fate of Shakespeares talented sister, that few Renaissance women participated in the periods literary culture, and that only the elite women were literate. Recent revisions of literacy studies have revealed many more women readers and writers; changing definitions of literature have revealed many more from a range of classes, often creating social communities of women readers and writers. During this period, women were influential writers, publishing bestsellers and introducing new genres to English readers, as well as circulating and preserving their works in manuscript form and supporting major male literary figures of the period as patrons.
