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Women, Writing and Modernity, 1770-1830

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Kim Simpson
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

The period 1770-1830 was a pivotal time in the history of women’s writing in Britain. Reacting against slavery and responding to the French Revolution, women assumed a prominent role in debates that would shape the modern world, and lead to modern feminism, most famously put forward by Mary Wollstonecraft. Exploring the formal innovations women made in different genres of writing offers a way into the relation between women’s writing and articulations of modernity. Writing by Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, and Jane Austen will introduce you to the different ways women’s writing reshaped definitions of gender, sexuality, social hierarchy and race, marriage, family, and nation.