Women’s Private Practices of Knowledge Production in Early Modern Europe - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3031447301 ISBN 13: 9783031447303

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023

Synopsis

This open access book explores knowledge practices by five women from different European contexts. Contributors document, analyze, and discuss how women employed practices of privacy to pursue knowledge that did not necessarily conform with the curriculum prescribed for them. The practices of Jane Lumley in England, Camila Herculiana in Padua, Victorine de Chastenay in Paris, as well as Elisabeth Sophie Marie and Philippine Charlotte in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, will help us to exemplify the delicate balance between audacity and obedience that women had to employ to be able to explore science, literature, philosophy, theology, and other types of learned activities. Cases range from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, presenting continuities and discontinuities across temporal and geographical lines of the strategies that women used to protect their knowledge production and retain intact their reputations as good Christian daughters, wives, and mothers. Taken together, the essaysshow how having access to privacy―the ability to regulate access to themselves while studying and learning―was a crucial condition for the success of the knowledge activities these women pursued.

This is an open access book.

About this title

About the Author

Natacha Klein Käfer is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Privacy Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Natália da Silva Perez is Assistant Professor of Popular Culture in Historical Perspective in the School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

From the Back Cover

This open access book explores knowledge practices by five women from different European contexts. Contributors document, analyze, and discuss how women employed practices of privacy to pursue knowledge that did not necessarily conform with the curriculum prescribed for them. The practices of Jane Lumley in England, Camila Herculiana in Padua, Victorine de Chastenay in Paris, as well as Elisabeth Sophie Marie and Philippine Charlotte in Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, will help us to exemplify the delicate balance between audacity and obedience that women had to employ to be able to explore science, literature, philosophy, theology, and other types of learned activities. Cases range from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, presenting continuities and discontinuities across temporal and geographical lines of the strategies that women used to protect their knowledge production and retain intact their reputations as good Christian daughters, wives, and mothers. Taken together, the essays show how having access to privacy―the ability to regulate access to themselves while studying and learning―was a crucial condition for the success of the knowledge activities these women pursued.

Natacha Klein Käfer is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Privacy Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Natália da Silva Perez is Assistant Professor of Popular Culture in Historical Perspective in the School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3031447301
• ISBN 13: 9783031447303
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 154
• Editor: Klein Käfer Natacha, Da Silva Perez Natália