Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature

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Corruption is a term increasingly used in political discourse and international relations. But what does it really mean, and can understanding the world through the lens of corruption reveal anything new? Anna and Helen talked about how women through the ages have been unable to find writing success as they silenced themselves for protection in society. However, they were writing nonetheless, and they could’ve had a legacy similar to their male contemporaries. Yet they were rarely taken seriously enough. Women’s work was usually ignored and appropriated; it was hardly ever shared or published. So this book is also for those who aren’t featured: women writers whose work no one ever knew about. Importance beyond the academic world

Unfortunately, when we get to the essay on Anne Bradstreet, Eve begins to lose her bite. Perhaps Beer wrote this chapter to maintain a steady chronology. But I don’t see how Bradstreet fits the book’s premise. In fact, Beer suggests that Bradstreet’s poetry might have been published — with the help of her father, husband, and brother-in-law — to counter the scandalous behavior of her sister Sarah, a London preacher. “Why should Bradstreet do our feminist heavy lifting,” Beer asks. To which I reply, tell us more about Sarah! Because, as a woman, if you are given the gift of education, your literacy is not a means of opening doors to different ways of being, but designed to prepare you better for your decreed role in life. Your task is to provide moral guidance, not to entertain, since for you to provide pleasure to your reader would make you little more than a courtesan. If you do have to write about sex and desire, then bear in mind that religious and literary traditions link women’s sexuality to subjection rather than authority. The essay ends by asking us to think about Bradstreet’s “tendentious take on history, her blindness to the colonized and her silences where we might have hoped for words.” We know very little about Bradstreet to begin with. It’s therefore unsurprising that this essay has the least to offer Beer’s central theme. Anna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literature We look forward to welcoming you to a Champagne Drinks Reception on Friday 22 September to launch the weekend, which includes our annual Gaudy Dinner on Saturday 23 September. Booking is now open for both these events.Medicine and philosophy, astronomy and theology all combined for millennia to insist that the female body is intrinsically faulty, cold, wet, irrational, changeable and above all fallen: unfit for the task of authorship. You can see why people questioned whether Trota of Salerno, a female doctor in 11th-century Italy, actually wrote a number of texts about diseases and health conditions affecting women. Surely a woman could not possess the intelligence and expertise to have written the works? Alongside her work as a biographer, Anna teaches English Literature and Creative Writing to undergraduates and postgraduates; contributes to the Oxford Student Texts series for Oxford University Press; and makes regular lecture and media appearances.

It’s a little surprising, then, that in writing about them, Beer begins to lose heart. She speaks about lost lives. They were misunderstood and not taken seriously. “It seems that selling a lot of books was not enough.” The fact that we haven’t been discussing the work of Braddon for the last 150 years is, she says, “one of the sadnesses driving this book.” The author, Anna Beer, covers eight women writers, starting with Julian of Norwich of the 1300's and ending with Mary Elizabeth Braddon who died in 1915. (Haven't heard of ME Braddon? Me either. She wrote 80 novels.) She states the word "author" is derived from the word "authority". How could women be authors as they had no authority? This lecture follows an afternoon colloquium on Writing Women, which is open to all ( more information here).

The Linton Lecture will be followed by a drinks reception for event speakers, OCLW Linton Friends, OCLW Visiting Scholars and invited guests. As a literature student myself, naturally I was intrigued when offered to attend the event on behalf of Bristol Women’s Voice. The talk was hosted by the lovely staff at Gloucester Road Books and Sidney & Eden, and chaired by Helen Taylor, a retired English professor. It turned out to be a friendly evening of thought-provoking discussion about gender in our literary history. Women writing against the odds But dismantling the patriarchy can’t be done alone, and all of these authors found male allies to get their work into print. Kempe had scribes; Austen and Bradstreet had fathers and brothers (and, in Bradstreet’s case, a husband) to champion them; Braddon had the support of her husband and publisher. Mind you, Beer knows all too well that the desire to be liked and not to come across as self-important is one of the pitfalls of the highly intelligent, educated woman. She describes Montegu in just such a way, imagining her to be like Vice President Kamala Harris, smiling too much because her “desire to please is also rooted in her sex.”

Anna will argue that it was a risk she was willing to take, as she attempts to hold the life and the work in the same frame. She writes that, for her, 'it remains the most powerful way to appreciate these women’s achievements as authors and to understand why, still, they and their work constitute an alternative history of literature in English.' She gives the societal construct, the current views/constraints on women (and women writers) for each of the women in the century in which they lived. She looks at them through our concerns today: sexism, racism, slavery, religious persecution, and explains their stance in the context of their society. She doesn't dismiss or excuse; but explains. It is said that providing I don’t speak about authority, culture, politics, morality, people, the opera or other entertainments, nor about anyone who believes anything, then I can print freely.

More books by Anna Beer

Join Book Club: Delivered to your inbox every Friday, a selection of publishing news, literary observations, poetry recommendations and more from Book World writer Ron Charles. Sign up for the newsletter. Beer uses their individual stories to tell a larger truth about literary history and how it pertains to women. There are running threads of patriarchal oppression, obviously, but specifically the spread of religious fervour and sexual panic. To sell your mind was, and is to some, the same as selling your body and the links between the aggressive response to female writers and sex workers was equally interesting and disturbing. Clearly, some of these authors are more well known to us today than others, but even someone as famous as Jane Austen is only a blinding success in hindsight. Her legacy was hard fought, well earned, and never guaranteed. The next essay is about Aemilia Lanyer, the illegitimate daughter of an Elizabethan court musician, who was subsequently educated by Katheryn Parr. She was the first woman to seek status as a professional author. She also wrote for women. Her poem “Salve Deux Rex Judaeorum,” now considered an important Renaissance text, re-imagines Genesis in Eve’s defense. Eve might’ve eaten the apple, but Jesus was betrayed by men. Thank you for taking that on board. If you are very good, we might allow you to write, but only about certain things and in certain ways and for certain people. It made me think about the importance of uplifting women in all types of work that they do, whether that be creative, professional or domestic. And that literature and literacy are also a privilege not afforded to everyone. An empowering manifesto