The "Tenth Muse" Phenomenon

The texts and contexts of women writing in English, Spanish and French, during the sixteenth and especially seventeenth centuries. Often dubbed "Tenth Muses," these first early modern women writers to gain public prominence wrote iconoclastic texts and/or epitomized socially sanctioned scripts for women. Authors include: Anne Bradstreet, Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Sor Juana, Mme de Lafayette, Maria de Zayas.