- Web Resources for Women Writers
- Under construction -- please be sure to visit
again.
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
On Fashion, Commerce, and Cultural Events
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.
- Shameless
Scribblers, taking its name from Alexander Pope's tirade
against Eliza Haywood, offers itself as a complement to the Celebration
of Women Writers page.
- 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 Literature offers 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. 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 Imperialism
to Postcolonialism: Perspectives on the British Empire and
about Technology
and Warfare.
- 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
Authors
Fleur Adcock
Margaret Atwood
Jane Austen
Pat Barker
- A brief biography
of Barker.
- Read "A
Backdoor into the Present," an interview with Barker
(translated from German) at LOLA Press and her interview, "It's
a Disaster for a Novel to Be Topical," with the Guardian's
Robert McCrum (1 April 2001).
- Reviews
published in the NYT; summary
of reviews and reader comments at Amazon.com.
- A bibliography
of Pat Barker's work and reviews of her work.
- Search the archives
of the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air" for
an interview with Barker on 13 July 1999.
- 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).
- "Craiglockhart
Connections" (sponsored by Napier University, which
resides on the former site of Craiglockhard Hospital) offers
links to three areas of the site: "The Lands of Craiglockhart"
(a history of the land and its buildings), "The War Poets"
(links to materials related to Sassoon and Owen), and "Visiting
Craiglockhart" (how to arrange a visit to the campus).
- Wilfred Owen Multimedia
Archive: an on-line archive with material on Wilfred Owen
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 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.
- Biographical
information about Dr W.H.R. Rivers.
Aphra Behn
Anne Bradstreet
- A brief
biography of Anne Bradstreet, with links to other web resources,
including scanned
images of early editions of her poetry and e-texts of her
poems.
- 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.
Wendy Cope
Anne Finch
- A biography
of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea.
L.M. Montgomery
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.
- The entry for Montagu at Britannica.com provides biographical
information and a picture.
Gloria Naylor
Jean Rhys
Adrienne Rich
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.
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.
Jeanette Winterson
- The Jeanette
Winterson Reader's Site offers extensive information about
Winterson and her work, as well as links to interviews, criticism,
and other sites.
- Visit Jeanette
Winterson's own site.
- Read an interview
with Winterson about her recent novel, The.Powerbook,
at Amazon.co.uk.
- If you enjoyed Winterson, try Angela Carter,
J. M. Coetzee, Julian
Barnes, Graham Swift, or Arundhati
Roy.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Virginia Woolf
- The Virginia Woolf Web has three sets of links: 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 biography
of Woolf at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
- A series of links with biographical
information and pictures at BBC Knowledge.
- 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.
- View several portraits of Virginia Woolf:
- Hear Virginia Woolf's voice
as she speaks a few words about English speech from a link available
at this site.
- Web resources on particular works:
- Read The New York Times obituary
for Woolf.
Authors who missed this version
of the syllabus...
A.S. Byatt
Angela Carter
Caryl Churchill
Margaret Drabble
Helen Fielding
- Web resources: Interview
with Fielding at Amazon.com, a RealAudio
interview with Fielding on NPR on 18 July 1998, a review
of Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary and Nick Hornby's About
a Boy.
- Recommended reading: Bridget Jones's Diary (1997).
If you enjoyed Fielding, try Nick
Hornby or Roddy
Doyle.
Penelope Fitzgerald
Doris Lessing
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
J.K. Rowling
- Web resources:
- Recommended reading: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(1997), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998),
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), and Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000).
Arundhati Roy
- Web resources:
- Recommended reading: The God of Small Things (1997).
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).
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Last
updated April 2001