Kansas State University

Web Resources for Women Writers

Below you'll find web links for the authors and works we're reading this semester, as well as recommendations for further reading. Some sites are better than others; as always when using the web, evaluate not only the quantity of the information presented, but its quality (the source of that information or its sponsor, date uploaded, etc.).

General Resources

On Women's History

• British History 1700-1920: The Emancipation of Women 1750-1920 provides biographies of British women noted for their involvement in women's suffrage and women's rights during this period, as well as pages on women's schooling, university education, birth control, marriage, careers and professions, and industrial work.
• USA 1840-1960 Women's Suffrage provides biographical information about American women noted for their involvement in women's suffrage and women's rights during this period, as well as pages on political issues related to campaigns for women's suffrage.

On Fashion, Commerce, and Cultural Events

• The Costumer's Manifesto has links to many images of women's dress in the 19th century.
• Cultural and Visual Resources for Women Romantic Era Authors.
• General Illustrations of Women's Clothing Styles of Jane Austen's Period, located at the Jane Austen Information Page.

On Women's Literature

• A Celebration of Women Writers exists, in its editor Mary Mark Ockerbloom's words, to recognize "the contributions of women writers throughout history." Here, you can search for women authors by name, century, or country.
• Scribbling Women provides resources, background, and lesson plans for works by several American women authors, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Susan Glaspell.

On Literary Periods, Genres, and Styles

Literary Periods

• W.W. Norton's site of web resources for the Norton Anthology of English Literatureoffers cultural and literary context for the periods in which our authors lived:
  • At the site for The Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1660-1785), "A Day in Eighteenth-Century London" provides a wonderful look at life in London, c.1660-1785, through writings, paintings, and engravings of the time. (Be sure to look at the excerpt from Eliza Haywood's The Female Specator (a response to Addison and Steele's The Specator and the engraving of ladies shopping for fabric.)
  • At the site for The Romantic Period (1785-1830), "Tintern Abbey, Tourism, and Romantic Landscape" offers some context for the travels of Victor Frankenstein in Shelley's novel, as well as further information about her Romantic contemporaries whom she quotes in her novel.
  • At the site for The Victorian Period (1830-1901), the page "Industrialism: Progress or Decline?" shows us another side to the Victorian way of life than our reading addresses, and addresses "The Woman Question." The "web links" page is also helpful, particularly a link to a site about The Plight of Women's Work in the Early Industrial Revolution in England and Wales (part of the Women in World History web site).
  • At the site for The Twentieth-Century, there are links to information about the Modernist Experiment and about Representing the Great War.
• The Women Romantic-Era Writers site offers a wealth of information for authors of this period, including pages on: Electronic Texts by Women Writers; Annuals, Anthologies and Gift Books; Contemporary Responses to Women Writers; Electronic Text Archives; Cultural and Visual Resources; and Related Web Sites.
• Alan Lui's Voice of the Shuttle page for English Literature offers links to resources for all periods of English literature.
• Jack Lynch's Literary Resources -- Twentieth Century British and Irish provides information on selected modern and contemporary authors.
• The Imperial Archive, a "site dedicated to the study of Literature, Imperialism, Postcolonialism" and authored by students working on the MA degree in Modern Literary Studies in the School of English at the Queen's University of Belfast.
• An Introduction to Postcolonial Studies at the site for Postcolonial Studies at Emory.

Literary Genres and Styles

• Detailed discussion of metafiction and historiographic metafiction.

Authors

Fleur Adcock

• Fleur Adcock -- The Expatriate Poet offers detailed biographical profile and critical overview of Adcock's work.
• A brief critical overview and a brief biographical profile.
• Read an interview with Adcock at the Guardian (29 July 2000), in which she discusses her childhood, England, New Zealand, relationships, and her art.
• From this BBC World Service page on Adcock, you can listen to Adcock read one of her poems, "Miramar," read other poets' comments on her poem, and go to other pages about Adcock

Margaret Atwood

• The Margaret Atwood Society homepage provides up-to-date information on Atwood's writing as well as an extensive bibliography and links to other sites.
• The British Council's Author Page on Atwood provides a biography.
• Professor Paul Brians's A Study Guide to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale provides study questions for each chapter as well as information on the novel's biblical and cultural allusions.
• A Reader's Guide for A Handmaid's Tale is available from Random House.

Jane Austen

• The Jane Austen Information Page offers e-texts and hypertext versions of Austen's works, background on Austen's novels and life, and many links to Regency activities and clothing.

Pat Barker

• Biographies:
  • The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Barker and critical overview of her work.
  • Another brief biography of Barker at Penguin.
  • A bibliography of Pat Barker's work and reviews of her work, as of 1999 (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
• Interviews:
  • Read "A Backdoor into the Present,"an interview with Barker (translated from German) at LOLA Press (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • Her interview, "It's a Disaster for a Novel to Be Topical,"with the Guardian's Robert McCrum (1 April 2001).
  • Search the archives of the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air" for an interview with Barker on 13 July 1999.
  • Debbie Taylor writes about her interview with Barker in Mslexia, "Regular insight into the working methods of a top woman author" (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • From the BBC programme "Front Row," listen to interviews with Pat Barker:
    • Barker discusses a three-part "reality t.v." history show called "The Trench" (March 2002), which invited contemporary people to live in the conditions of trench warfare. (RealAudio file.)
    • Barker discusses the use of medical hospitals as settings for books and films, including her use of this setting in Regeneration (May 2002). (RealAudio file.)
• Reviews and critical essays:
  • Reviews published in the NYT; summary of reviews and reader comments at Amazon.com.
  • Read the first paragraph of Rosemary Dinnage's essay review of the Regeneration trilogy, "Death's Gray Land" (New York Review of Books), and see David Levine's sketch of Barker which accompanies the review.
  • Scholar Peter Hitchcock offers a critical analysis of Prior's character and masculinity in his essay "What is Prior? Working-Class Masculinity in Pat Barker's Trilogy" (Genders 35, 2002).
  • "Pat Baker's Regeneration: Critical Contexts" offers brief analyses of Barker's novel, focusing on the people, places, and cultural references which appear in the narrative.
• Information on Dr.W.H.R. Rivers:
  • Biographical information about Dr W.H.R. Rivers.
  • "Freud and the War Neuroses'" offers background on the therapies popular during WWI for treating shell-shock and which Rivers rejected in his treatments at Craiglockhart.
  • Read Rivers' "An Address on the Repression of War Experience," originally published in The Lancet in 1918.
• Links to historical background on the First World War:
  • Explore the site for World War One at BBC Knowledge for links to a summary of the war years, Daily Mirror articles from the 1940s about the war, interviews with veterans, a 3-D virtual tour of a trench, and information about making of the UK feature-length television drama "All the King's Men" (1999).
  • "The War Poets at Craiglockhart" (sponsored by Napier University, which resides on the former site of Craiglockhart Hospital) offers a history the site in the context of WWI and the poets who stayed there.
  • The First World War Poetry Archive: an on-line archive with material on Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, other poets, and WWI which offers an incredibly deep resource for background material on Barker's novel, including digital facsimiles of all of Owen's war poetry, a selection of his letters and photographs, and his personal records. In addition, the archive has over 250 Photographs of the Western Front (1914-1918); 250 Modern Photographs of the Western Front; c.50 Video Clips from the 1916 films "The Battle of the Somme" and "The Battle of the Ancre: The Advance of the Tanks" (QuickTime and MPEG); 100 Audio Clips from interviews with veterans from the Great War (RealAudio);and c.30 Modern Video Clips of the Western Front. (Most of the photos were taken from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.)
  • Information about The Hydra, the publication of Craiglockhart Hospital edited by Wilfred Owen during his stay at Craiglockhart, and about the grounds of Craiglockhart Hospital.
  • Information about the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment).

Aphra Behn

• The Aphra Behn Page offers a chronology of Behn's life and works, links to online texts, and information about women in Restoration theater.
• The Sign of Angelica: An Aphra Behn Web Site provides a conversational biography and overview of Behn's life.
• The Aphra Behn Society page has links to sites with biographical information, as well as links to electronic versions of Behn's works.

Anne Bradstreet

• A brief biography of Anne Bradstreet, with links to other web resources.
• Pattie Cowell provides a critical overview of Bradstreet's work for Heath's Online Instructor Guide.

Anne Bronte

• Anne Bronte -- The Scarborough Connection provides a deep resource of wonderful information and pictures about Anne Bronte's life and works, as well as links to other resources.
• Anne Brontë: An Overview (at the Victorian Web) places Anne Bronte's work in the context of the19th century period.
• The Bronte Sisters Web offers information about the sisters as well as informationa about the Bronte Society, mailing lists, other Bronte homepages, and links to other 19th century authors' pages. If your curious how certain words recur in their novels, be sure to try the Victorian Literary Studies Archive Hyper-Concordence for the Bronte sisters (linked from this page).

Wendy Cope

• Brief biographical profile.
• The BBC provides an overview of Cope's life and poetry, with comments from other poets about her work.
• An interview in the Guardian (3 June 2001) with Cope on the publication of her latest collection If I Don't Know (2001).

Carol Ann Duffy

• The Knitting Circle offers a brief overview of Duffy's life and career as well as links to critical commentaries on her work.

Helen Fielding

• A overview of Fielding's work as of 2008 appears at the Guardian.
• Penguin USA has a reader's guide to Fielding's novel, which includes an interview with Fielding, a brief biography and more.
• Check out the differences between the US and UK dust-jackets for Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason.
• The Bridget Archive provides links to interviews, reviews, and additional information.
• The transcript from an online chat with Fielding in 1998 with Time.com.
• "The Chick Lit Challenge" (March/April 2004, Utne) offers an overview of chick lit, a publishing trend which began with Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.
• Review of Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary and Nick Hornby's About a Boy.
• If you enjoyed Fielding, try Nick Hornby or Roddy Doyle.

Anne Finch

• A biography of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea.

Erica Jong

• The Erica Jong Web Site, Erica Jong's own website, has a variety of information about her work; the "Essay about Erica Jong" By Shellie Fisher Fishkin (reprinted from the American Writers; A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement V, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2000) offers a good overview of her career.
• "That Suburban Matron, Erica Jong," from 4 August 1980 in the New York Times, is an interview/review in which Jong discusses her latest book -- Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980) -- as well as her marriage and her career. (Interesting cultural snapshot of a strident feminist author c.1980!)
• The online archives on Erica Jong at New York Times provides links to reviews written by Jong and reviews of her books, including a review of Fear of Flying, her 1974 controversial best-seller.
• An essay by Erica Jong about Flaubert's Madame Bovary, "Fiction Victim," is available at Salon.com.

L.M. Montgomery

• The L.M. Montgomery Core Institute homepage has biographical information about Montgomery's life and about her books, and currently features an online exhibition titled "Picturing a Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers." The exhibition offers a wealth of text and visual information about Montgomery's view of the world as expressed through her books and scrapbooks, as well as historical and cultural context for Montgomery's art.
• Prince Edward Island: Lucy Maud Montgomery, a site run by the Government of Prince Edward Island, also offers background information on Montgomery and her works (including film and stage adaptations), as well as describing world of Prince Edward Island.
• Hypertext of Anne of Green Gables, through Project Gutenberg, with links to other books in the Anne series (Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, and Anne's House of Dreams).
• Marketing Anne of Green Gablesover the decades:
  • Here's a link to the cover design for the 1908 edition of Anne of Green Gables.
  • Compare various contemporary cover designs: How have editors and illustrators interpreted Anne for various audiences?
  • View an even more extensive collection of book covers, and read about the publishing of Montgomery's work through the decades from "The Changing Perception of L.M. Montgomery's Writing," both part of the online exhibition "Picturing a Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers."

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

• Renascence Editions offers a biography of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, as well as annotated e-texts of selected poems and prose.

Gloria Naylor

• The Unofficial Gloria Naylor Homepage has a brief chronology of Naylor's life and a few links to other information about her works. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Voices from the Gap -- Women Writers of Color (from the University of Minnesota and frequently updated) has a page on Gloria Naylor, including some information about Naylor's next book.
• A reading group guide for Naylor's first novel, The Women of Brewster Place (1982), offers a brief biography.
• For detailed reading and discussion questions and a structural outline of Naylor's Mama Day, visit the page of links created by Professor E. K. Sparks (Clemson University). Note: The structural outline, and possibly some of the questions, will give away plot information if read in advance!

Jean Rhys

• A brief literary biography of Rhys provides a time-line of dates in her life and descriptions of her work.
• The Christophine Site provides historical background on Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Historical background on the Carribean.
• Compare cover designs for different editions of Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Information about Rhys' papers, held in the Special Collections at the University of Tulsa.

Adrienne Rich

• The Modern American Poetry page for Adrienne Rich offers a brief biographical essay on Rich's life and career and her work, as well as links to critical excerpts from various writers on some of Rich's well-known poems.
• The Academy of American Poets has a page on Adrienne Rich with brief biographical and bibliographical information and some links.
• "The Possibilities of an Engaged Art: An Interview with Adrienne Rich" from the Radcliffe Quarterly (Fall 1998) explores the politics of Rich's art.
• Listen (or watch) a lecture by Adrienne Rich given at Wellesley College 23 September 2003.

Christina Rossetti

• The Christina Rossetti page at the Victoria Web places Rossetti's life and her works in the context of the Victorian period.
• The Victoria Web also has a page dedicated to Rossetti's "Goblin Market," including the text of the poem alongside some of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations for his sister's work. You can also go directly to links for selected illustrations for "Goblin Market" by Rossetti and by Lawrence Houseman.

J.K. Rowling

• Visit J. K. Rowling's own website.
• The Leaky Cauldron offers up-to-date news on Rowling, the series, and the films.
• The Harry Potter Lexicon offers a wealth of information about the series.
• For more, see Phil Nel's comprehensive web links for Rowling.

Jeanette Winterson

• The British Council's Author Page on Winterson provides a biography. (Note: In the "Critical Perspective" section of this page, the author incorrectly identifies Henri of The Passion as a woman; critics usually read this character as male.)
• Be sure to visit Jeanette Winterson's own site for a wealth of information, including Winterson's monthly columns to her readers and links to her journalism.
• The Jeanette Winterson Reader's Site offers extensive information about Winterson and her work, as well as links to interviews, criticism, and other sites.
• Read an interview with Winterson about her recent novel, The.Powerbook, at Amazon.co.uk.
• For a discussion of the way Winterson's persona has been presented in the media, you might enjoy a paper I presented a few years ago: "With 'money and a room of her own': The Legacy of Woolf's Advice for the Woman Artist at Century's End."
• If you enjoyed Winterson, try Angela Carter, J. M. Coetzee, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, or Arundhati Roy.

Mary Wollstonecraft

• A brief biography with some links is available through Spartacus.
• A timeline of Wollstonecraft's life.

Virginia Woolf

• Biographical information on Woolf
  • A biography of Woolf at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
  • A series of links with biographical information and pictures at BBC Knowledge.
  • The Guardian's Author Page for Virginia Woolf, with a brief biography and overview of her work, along with links to Guardian articles about her work.
  • A detailed chronology of Woolf's life at the Virginia Woolf Web. (Note: many links do not work, but the information in the chronology is accurate.)
  • The Knitting Circle's page on Woolf provides some biographical and annotated bibliographical information.
  • Read The New York Timesobituary for Woolf.
• "Leslie Stephen's Photograph Album" provides a collection of photographs from the album of Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), Woolf's father. The album, held in the Mortimer Rare Book Room of the Library at Smith College, offers a visual documentary of Woolf's extended family and her early life. Of special note:
  • an early photo of Woolf's mother, Julia Prinsep Jackson.
  • a photo of Julia holding Virginia.
  • a photo of a young Thoby Stephen.
  • a photo of a young Virginia and her brother Adrian playing cricket.
  • a photo of the four children at lessons.
  • a photo of Virginia reading with her mother and father.
• View several portraits of Virginia Woolf:
  • The famous (and most popular) portrait taken in 1902 by George Charles Beresford and housed at the National Portrait Gallery is available from their page of Woolf's portraits.
  • A collection of other portraits by Man Ray and Giselle Freund.
  • "Images of Virginia Woolf: An Electronic Gallery" also has a series of images.
• Hear Virginia Woolf's voice as she speaks a few words about English speech from a link available at this site.
• General resources and information on Woolf's work
  • The Virginia Woolf Web has been the most comprehensive of all the sites on Woolf, but its links aren't always current, and so it's now rather hit or miss. It has four parts: Life and Works of Virginia Woolf, VWWI Links 1 (Woolf Studies on the Web), VWW Links 2 (Places of Interest, Hotch-Potch, and Film), and VWW Links 3 (The Bloomsbury Group and Others), as well as other resources.
  • A wide-ranging series of links about Woolf's work through Literaryhistory.com, including links to New York Times reviews of her novels.
  • "Virginia Woolf: A Botanical Perspective" (Smith College) "explores the ubiquitous and powerful presence of plants and flowers in Virginia Woolf's life and work."
• Read Woolf's essay on film, "The Movies and Reality," first published in The New Republic on 4 August 1926.
• Web resources on particular works:
  • The Voyage Out:
    • Author Michael Cunningham's essay at Salon magazine (adapted from his introduction to the Modern Library edition of The Voyage Out) provides a thoughtful discussion of this first novel and Woolf's career.
  • "Thunder at Wembly":
    • Woolf's 1924 essay responded to the extremely popular British Empire Exhibition, which ran from 1924 to 1925. "Creating Wembley: The Construction of a National Monument" not only provides a history of Wembley Stadium (which began life as part of the Empire Exhibition), but also a detailed look at the Exhibition itelf.
    • Also view: some background and pictures of the Exhibition; a picture of the opening ceremony and commemorative stamps; an advertisement and picture of the grounds; souvenirs, with some further information about the exhibition.
  • To the Lighthouse:
    • Study questions by Cathy Decker.
    • A structural outline of To the Lighthouse by E. K. Sparks (Clemson University).
    • A reading of Woolf's narrative strategies in To the Lighthouse in light of the male and masculine modernism of Woolf's contemporaries. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
    • The fairy tale "The Fisherman and His Wife" which Mrs. Ramsay reads to James in Part I. (Another version of the tale is available as well.)
    • Poetry quoted during the novel includes Browne's "Siren's Song," Cowper's "The Castaway," Elton's "Luliana Lurilee," Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 98, and Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." (A separate web page,"Allusions in Woolf's To the Lighthouse," should also provide the text to these poems.)
    • Context for Woolf's discussion of nature in Part II: Excerpts (LIV-LVI) from Tennyson's In Memorium.
    • Presentation on Woolf's holograph draft. (Note: Can only be viewed in Internet Explorer.)
    • Lily's painting may have been inspired by this photograph of Woolf's mother holding Vanessa, and this photograph of Julia at a window of Talland House, with Virginia and Adrian.
  • The Waves:
    • Some comments posted to the Virginia Woolf listserv about reading strategies for The Waves.
    • A detailed study guide to The Waves, featuring links to study questions, detailed character analyses, a FAQ, excerpts from contemporary reviews, and more.
  • Three Guineas:
    • Ellen Goodman's syndicated op-ed column, "Are women now insiders on the war?" (27 March 2003) looks at gender and the war with Iraq through the lens of Woolf's Three Guineas.

Authors who missed this version of the syllabus...

A.S. Byatt

• Web resources: An interview with Byatt at Salon; reviews and articles about/by Byatt in the NYT; a web page devoted to Byatt (under construction); a Reader's Guide for discussion of Still Life, Babel Tower available from Random House.
• Recommended reading: Still Life (1985), Possession (1990), The Djiin in the Nightingale's Eye (1997).

Angela Carter

• Web resources: The Unofficial Angela Carter Page; reviews and articles about/by Carter in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: The Bloody Chamber, Nights at the Circus, Wise Children.

Caryl Churchill

• Brief biographical profile and bibliography.
• Recommended reading: Cloud 9 (1978), Top Girls (1980).

Margaret Drabble

• Web resources: Reviews and articles about/by Drabble in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: Jerusalem the Golden (1967).

Georgette Heyer

• Web resources: The Georgette Heyer Homepage; A Gallery of Heyer Images; G.A. Michael Sims' "Biographical Note and Bibliography"; BBCi's overview "The Romantic Novels of Georgette Heyer."
• Recommended reading: The Masqueraders (1928), Frederica (1965), The Grand Sophy (1950).

Penelope Fitzgerald

• Web resources: Brief overview of her novels by her publisher.
• Recommended reading: The Bookshop, Offshore, Human Voices.

Doris Lessing

• Web resources: Reviews and articles about/by Lessing in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: The Golden Notebook (1962) and The Fifth Child (1988).

Toni Morrison

• Web resources: Anniina's Toni Morrison Page has information about her books as well as links to on-line biographies, bibliographies, and interviews. For information about the Nobel Prize Morrison won in 1993 for "novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" and the text of her Nobel Lecture, visit her Nobel Prize Internet Archive Page.
• Recommended reading: Song of Solomon (1977) and Beloved (1987).

Iris Murdoch

• Web resources: One page has a detailed biographical profile and another a bibliography as well as links to other sites.
• Recommended reading: The Sea, the Sea (1978).

Arundhati Roy

• Web resources:
  • The Arundhati Roy Page at the SAWNet (Southern Asian Women 's NETwork) site offers a brief biographical profile, links to print and RealAudio interviews with Roy, and information on the reaction of Kerala's Communists to Roy's novel.
  • The Arundhati Roy Web provides biographical information as well as a map of Kerla, the setting for The God of Small Things.
  • Information about Kerala, about divorce in India, about the caste system, and about communism in India from the site for Postcolonial Studies at Emory.
  • An interview with Roy at Salon.
• Recommended reading: The God of Small Things (1997).

Mary Shelley

• The Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology and Resource Site has a complete and detailed chronology of Mary Shelley's life as well as a bibliography and selected links to other web resources. Of special note: Sir Walter Scott's review of Frankenstein (1818) in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (2 [20 March/1 April 1818]: 613-6) and the chronology of Mary Shelley's life for 1797-1816 and for 1817-1824.
• View Henry Fuseli's painting "The Nightmare" (1781) which may serve as a source for the scene of Elizabeth Lavenza's death. An alternate version of "The Nightmare" (1781-1782) exists as well.

Muriel Spark

• Web resources:
• Recommended reading: The Girls of Slender Means, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Alice Walker

• Anniina's Alice Walker Page offers detailed information about Walker's life and works, with links to bibliographies, book reviews, interviews, and the works themselves.
• Recommended reading: Pulitzer prize-winning The Color Purple (1982).