I have just finished my undergraduate degree in English Literature at Loughborough University, and will be moving on to MA study with an Early Modern focus (unsurprisingly!) in September. I am super excited about getting stuck into my MA, as writing my dissertation this year has really opened my eyes to the veritable treasure trove of seventeenth century work that is out there, a lot of it which is still to be discovered! My dissertation focused on the religious poetry of George Herbert's The Temple. It sought to group together some of his poems into what I would describe as three age-appropriate groups which related specifically to the concerns or experiences of his young, adult, and aged readers. This enabled me to really get a handle on the versatility of Herbert's poetry, and allowed me to see how his range of poetic techniques allowed him to construct and frame specific poems (such as 'JESU' or 'H. Baptisme (I)' which I suggested were particularly applicable to the younger Christian reader) in a manner that was most suited to an individual group of his readership; thereby allowing them to have the most relevance.
Even though there is still the long stretch of summer before I begin my MA, I am pretty sure that I would like to shift my focus from religious poetry, and return to looking at women's writing in the seventeenth century, whilst retatining my interest in the century's social culture and context. I am particularly keen to broaden my knowledge of what female writers achieved in literature that was not primarily creative or fictional (I'm thinking here of Aphra Behn). Instead, I would like to explore those women, such as Hannah Woolley or Jane Sharp, whose literary work was focused upon conveying knowledge of household management or medicine. This is something that is completely new to me, but I'm ready to get stuck in!
So, that's a quick overview of my academic interests, but what about this blog? What I am primarily hoping to use it for is to share interesting snippets of seventeenth-century works as I come across them, some artistic or literary miscellany from the period, and also to share my own ideas and thoughts on my work and life as a postgraduate as I progress next year.
I am fairly new to this blogging malarkey, so am more than happy to receive comments and feedback from anyone that happens across it (complimentary or critical!), as I am always looking to improve my knowledge of any new project that I embark on!
Thank you for reading, and I promise that my next post will be far more interesting! But in the mean time, here is a wonderful little manuscript image with a caption that I came across via Robert Miller (see links below):
'With this bagel, I thee wed'
- Origin of manuscript image: Royal MS 6 E VI, f. 104r. See, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/
illuminatedmanuscripts/record. asp?MSID=7788&CollID=16& NStart=60506 - Robert Miller, britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/
digitisedmanuscripts/2013/05/ of-captions-clerics-and- queens-tweeting-the-medieval- illuminated-manuscript.html
© Jenna
Townend 2013
Good luck to you as you pursue your interests in women in the 17th century!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your work and blog.