Professor Amy L. Tigner, University of Texas, Arlington
Engl. 4399: Early Modern Women and Literary Production
In this course, we will be reading early modern women’s texts, in manuscript form, to consider the cultural and political nodal points of gendered writing in a highly patriarchal society. Most women’s writing courses have been primarily concerned with tradition literature: poetry, non-fiction prose, plays, and novels written by women who have formed the canon in this period, as established by feminist scholars in the 1980s and 90s. Instead we will be exploring other kinds of writing, particularly letters and, receipt books (what the early moderns called cook books), to investigate a larger sense of literacy, writing and the concerns of women in this period. This class will participate in two related digital humanities projects: Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) run by a group of international scholars interested in recipes and with Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO) which is the project of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. In both of these cases, students will be transcribing and coding the manuscripts to create accessible databases. We will also be collaborating and communicating with Professor Lisa Smith’s students at the University of Essex to talk about 17th century recipes, their strange ingredients, and the culture surrounding the recipes. Students will study 16th and 17th century handwriting (paleography) so that they will have the skill set to work in the digital archives.
This syllabus is subject to change by the discretion of the instructor.
Date | Reading Assignment and theme | Activity | Work Due |
Th
8/25 |
Introduction to the class
Introduction to paleography and the Cambridge Handwriting site
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Assignment:
Find a feather that could be made into a quill.
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Tu
8/30 |
Read: Herman’s A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter one p. 1-26
Wolfe “Woman’s handwriting” in Cambridge Companion 21-39
Reading Quiz Ink recipes: Granville pp. 42, 101 (spanish),102,103
What goes into making ink
Cambridge handwriting
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Paleography and Ink
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Assignment from Cambridge Handwriting |
Th
9/1 |
Read: Herman’s A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Two p. 27-58
Reading Quiz
Paleography More on alphabets
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Cambridge Handwriting
Italics and Secretary. |
Assignments from Cambridge Handwriting site |
Tu
9/6 |
Read: Herman A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter
Three p. 59-91 Daybell The Material Letter in Early Modern England “Materials and Tools of Letter Writing” (Blackboard)
Reading Quiz Ink and Quill:
Read: http://irongallink.org/igi_indexd7ce.html
Quill making Ink Making at 11:45 p.m.
Ink recipes: Granville pp. 42, 101 (spanish),102,103 (handout)
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Making Ink and quills | Assignments from Cambridge Handwriting site
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Th
9/8 |
Read: Herman A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Four p. 92-114
Letters Wolfe “ The Practice of Letter Locking” (Blackboard essays) Read: Daybell “Letters” Cambridge Companion, 181-193 Reading Quiz
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Introduction to Letters | |
Tu
9/13 |
Read: Herman, A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Five p. 115-148
Daybell, “Female literacy and the social conventions of women’s letter-writing in England, 1540-1603” in Early modern women’s letter writing, 1450-1700 (Blackboard)
Reading Quiz
Cambridge Handwriting |
Due: Alphabet
Anne Broughton letter transcribed |
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Th 9/15 | Read: Herman, A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Six, p. 149-180
Reading Quiz
Background of Bess of Hardwick Paleography test
Read: Maxwell, “Lives and Letters” (Blackboard)
Letters from Bess of Hardwick correspondence. See http://luna.folger.edu to look up letters by manuscript number
Letter from Dorothy Stafford to Bess of Hardwick Folger MSS.X.d.428 128
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Letters | |
Tu
9/20 |
Read: Herman, A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Seven, p. 181-213
Maylay “Elizabethan Court Culture..” Group 1: Letter from Wm Cavendish to Bess of Hardwick Reading Quiz Folger MSS X.d. 428 (24)
Group 2: Letter from Mary Talbot to Bess of Hardwick Folger MSS. X.d.428 (118)
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Letters | Letter Transcription due |
Th
9/22 |
Read: Herman, A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chapter Eight, p. 214-251
Reading quiz
Group 1: Letter from Mary Talbot to Bess of Hardwick Folger MSS. X.d.428 (119)
Group 2: Earl of Essex to Bess of Hardwick Folger MSS X.d.428 (26) |
Letters | Letter Transcription Due |
Tu
9/27 |
Introduction to Recipes and
Chocolate as a case study Read: Carruth/Tigner “Recipes as Vernacular Literature” Read blog: “Chacolet” by Connell and Nicosia http://collation.folger.edu/2016/01/chacolet
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Recipes | Letter Transcription Due
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Th
9/29 |
7 min. presentations of papers with illustrations from the letters using power point.
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Due: 500-word critical essay on one of the letters we transcribed | |
Tu
10/4 |
Read: Leong and Pennell “Recipe Collecting…”(Blackboard)
Read: Blog: “Chocolate in the Classroom” by Amanda Herbert https://recipes.hypotheses.org/3114
Recipes for chocolate: Transcribe: Fanshawe Winche Granville |
Making a chocolate drink—the 17th century way.
Chocolate making at noon. |
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Th
10/6 |
Read: Pennell “Perfecting Practice” (Blackboard)
Read Wall “Women in the Household” Cambridge Companion 97-109 Begin working with Dromio and transcriptions for EMROC
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Tu
10/11 |
Read: Sherman_
“Reading the Matriarchive” (in Blackboard)
Dromio and transcription: Baker
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Th
10/13 |
Read: Field “Many Hands Hands”
(in Blackboard)
Dromio and transcription: Baker
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Short paper due: 500 words on a recipe you transcribed | |
Tu
10/18 |
Read: Wall “Literacies: Handwriting and Handiwork” In Recipes for Thought (Blackboard)
Dromio and transcription: Baker
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Th
10/20 |
Read: DiMeo and Laroche “On Elizabeth Isham’s Oil of Swallows” (Blackboard)
Dromio and transcription: Baker
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Bibliography workshop
Abstract Workshop Discussion of final paper |
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Tu
10/25 |
Read: Goldstein “Woolley’s Mouse” (Blackboard)
Transcriptions : Baker
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Th
10/27 |
Read: Fissell “Women in healing spaces” Cambridge Companion 124-139
How to write the Abstract and the Annotated bibliography
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Short paper due: 500 words on a recipe you transcribed | |
Tu
11/1 |
Read: Tigner “Preserving Nature” (Blackboard)
Distillation day |
Distillation of waters (workshop at 12 pm) | Annotated Bibliography
(10 sources)
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Th
11/3 |
Read: Wall “Knowledge: Recipes and Experimental Cultures” (Blackboard)
Transcriptions |
Abstract due: 250 words | |
Tu
11/8 |
No class
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Wednesday
11/9 |
Transcribathon: This is not a regular class day, but you will need to try to participate in the Transcribathon, either in the assigned room (Carlisle 212) with the group or on your own. | ||
Th 11/10 | No class | Transcription Assignments | |
Tu
11/15 |
Watch class videos; Transcriptions Dromio and transcription: Baker
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Video of a 17th century recipe you made.
Transcription Assignments |
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Th
11/17 |
Watch class videos
Transcription Dromio and transcription: Baker
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5 page draft of final paper due
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Tu
11/22 |
Writing Workshop | ||
Th
11/24 |
No class
Thanksgiving |
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Tu
11/29 |
Presentation of final paper (10 min)
with power point
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Th
12/1 |
Presentation of final papers (10 min)
with power point |
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Tu
12/6 |
Cooking from the Archives | Final paper due before class on Blackboard |
Student Learning Outcomes:
To become: Better Critical readers, writers and thinkers
Archival researchers
Participants in two international Digital Humanities Projects
Knowledgeable about the early modern period
Knowledgeable about women’s writing in the early modern period
Major assignments/tests and grading
10 Annotated bibliographies for critical works (using template) due on the day of the reading 20%
2 short (500 word essays) 10% each for 20%
Transcription test 5%
Individual and Group Transcriptions, Videos, Small Assignments 20%
Final presentation 5%
Final paper 30%
Required Text:
Knoppers, Laura. The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women’s Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009.
Herman, Peter. A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.