Artikel
Elizabeth Thomas, Laetitia Pilkington and Competing Currencies of the book
Verfasst von:
Ingrassia, Catherine
info
in:
Women's writing
Wallingford:
2016
,
312-324 S.
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| Einrichtung: | Ariadne | Wien |
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| Verfasst von: | Ingrassia, Catherine info |
| In: | Women's writing |
| Jahr: | 2016 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Beschreibung: | |
| In their life writing, Elizabeth Thomas (1675–1731) and Laetitia Pilkington (c.1709–50) strategically use the book (as a material object, literary commodity and cultural currency) and the library (as both a physical space and a curated collection of texts) to create meaning and identity. Well-read gentlewomen with literary ambitions, associations with established male writers and a keen understanding of the literary marketplace, Thomas and Pilkington aspired to achieve fame as poets, desiring literary reputation more than the financial remuneration. They also recognized the book as a marker of status within eighteenth-century culture. Yet even as they narratively privilege the book as evidence of their own cultural position and literary viability, they retain only limited control over its possession and circulation, and, ultimately, their own reputations. As their personal situations deteriorated (both faced homelessness and endured debtors' prison), they struggled to remain financially solvent by exploiting the primarily commercial value of the book. Resorting to less reputable means of earning a living within print culture eroded the cultural capital they previously enjoyed. When the book (as owned or produced) becomes most valuable for them in a purely financial sense, it becomes most costly to their professional reputations and literary legacy. | |
| Anmerkung: | |
| Notes: Seite 321-324 | |
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