FEMININITY IN WOMEN’S WRITINGS OF THE 17TH TO 19TH CENTURIES
FEMININITY IN WOMEN’S WRITINGS OF THE 17TH TO 19TH CENTURIES

Summary/Abstract: Having overcome the exclusively male authority prejudices (based on notions of authority, public sphere, initiative, individuality, exhibitionism, etc., prohibited women as being against nature), the feminine writings of the eighteenth century have adopted various strategies consisting of: anonymity, more pronounced asserting with a preference of educative writings for novel (considered as marginal at the time), as well as the proclaimed delimitation to strictly female audience, but also forewords and interventions in the texts in line with the ideology of men regarding women etc. As novelists, women have always been self-conscious, but only rarely selfdefining. While they have been deeply and perennially aware of their individual identities and experiences, women writers have very infrequently considered whether these experiences might transcend the personal and local, assume a collective form in art, and reveal a history.

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