Longman Medieval and Renaissance LibraryGeneral Editors: Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford and N.H. Keeble, University of StirlingLongman Medieval and Renaissance Library is a major series of critical introductions to key literary and cultural topics from Old English to the late seventeenth century. Volumes in the series draw on original research and are sensitive to current critical concerns. They are also designed to meet the needs of students and the general reader. A key feature of the series is the breadth and variety of coverage, providing authoritative studies on a wide range of subjects from individual authors and works, to genres, periods and contexts.The Politics of Early Modern Women's Writing provides an introduction to the ever-expanding field of early modern women's writing by reading texts in their historical and social contexts. Covering a wide range of forms and genres, the author shows that rather than women conforming to the conventional 'chaste, silent and obedient' model, or merely working from the 'margins' of Renaissance culture, they in fact engaged centrally with many of the major ideas and controversies of their time. The book discusses many previously neglected texts and authors, as well as more familiar figures such as Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, Isabella Whitney and Lady Mary Wroth, and draws attention to the importance of genre and forms of circulation in the production of meaning.The Politics of Early Modern Women will be of interest both to those encountering this material for the first time, and to students and scholars working in the fields of women's writing, gender studies, history and literature.Danielle Clarke is Lecturer in English at University College Dublin. She is the co-editor of 'This Double Voice': Gendered Writing in Early Modern England (2000), editor of Three Renaissance Women Poets: Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney, Aemilia Lanyer (2000) and the author of articles on women's writing, sexuality and critical theory.