This day and age has no shortage of “guides” for unattached gals. “The Single Woman’s Guide to Retirement.” “…to Living Alone.” “…to a Happy Pregnancy.” …To Renaissance England?
That’s the topic Cora Fox, associate professor of English at ASU, discusses when she talks about Isabella Whitney, a Renaissance-era poet and one of Europe’s first professional female writers.
An unemployed, unmarried maidservant with no financial support, Whitney began writing to earn a living. Her secular poetry questioned the status quo and attacked critics.
“[While] we as modern women have not always had opportunities, we’ve always been able to question the cultural values and systems that influence our lives,” Fox says. “She put her perspective on her own culture in print; we should be inspired to do the same.”
Fox's lecture "The Single Woman's Guide to Renaissance England" begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock Drive in Tempe. Admission is free. Call 480-730-0205 or visit changinghands.com.
Thu., June 13, 7 p.m., 2013
