Overview

Letters have long been an outlet for political expression, whether they articulate the personal politics of the daily routine or the political views of individuals who witness or participate in dramatic events. In addition, letters can be unusually revealing records of the relations between men and women. Though letters have frequently been studied as a privileged space for literary, social, and cultural expression, the three-dimensional relationship of politics, gender, and letters has not been the focus of an entire volume. The nineteen essays in this collection examine how the gendered nature of political literacy is revealed over a 250-year period through letter writing, whether the writer is famous or unknown, the wife of a prominent politician or activist, a political prisoner or political militant. Ranging wide in terms of subject matter and geography, the contributors examine correspondence that ponders familial concerns, as well as letters providing political commentary on the effects of war or revolution on everyday life. Among the impressive group of international scholars are Jim Allen, Clare Brant, Edith Gelles, Jane Rendall, and Siân Reynolds.

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9780367882419

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Reviews

'Collectively, these excellent essays show how letter writing has functioned historically as a form of gendered subjectivity, simultaneously providing political commentary, creating political subjects, and redrawing the boundaries between public and private life. A real tour de force that will be of great use to historians as well as to literary and cultural studies scholars.' Laura Levine Frader, Northeastern University and Harvard University, USA 'This volume aims to breathe 'new life into old letters', and succeeds by presenting us with a diverse and fascinating array of correspondence ranging from the middle of the eighteenth up to the late twentieth century... One of the most enjoyable aspects of this book lies in the way in which it demonstrates the range of letter writing available, and it allows the letters themselves to provide glimpses into the social, political and cultural worlds of the authors and their readers... This volume will be of immense value to those interested in literary, cultural and historical studies. The function and the variety of the epistolary form is considered in its historical context as to highlight the relationships between politics and private life, and also to describe the evolution of the epistolary form as a genre.' Women's History Magazine

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Maire Cross and Caroline Bland

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