Toward a Female Stoic Tradition: Women's Writings in England, 1600-1800

The Project

This project aims to investigate the neglected history of women’s engagement with Stoic ideas in early modern England. It expects to generate new knowledge of a distinctive strand of women’s Stoic thought by taking a novel interdisciplinary approach to different genres of early modern writing. The intended outcomes include a new understanding of women’s valuable contributions to philosophy, literature, and politics in the period, as well as a greater appreciation of the gender-inclusivity of Stoic philosophy. This should provide significant benefits including the promotion of gender equality through the recognition of women’s intellectual and literary history.

This is an interdisciplinary project which draws together insights and approaches from literary studies, philosophy and politics. The successful candidate will work with English literature scholar, Dr Diana Barnes on stoic ideas in early modern women’s writing with a particular emphasis upon what literary interpretive methodologies can uncover. Options include the oeuvres of writers such as Margaret Cavendish, Mary Sidney, Dorothy Osborne, Katherine Phillips, Mary Wortley Montagu, Mary Chudleigh, but other possibilities include an investigation of the gendering of stoic ideas in the writings of John Milton, William Shakespeare etc. The candidate will have the opportunity to work with other members of the team, to present in project colloquia and to undertake some original archival research.

Scholarship Information