Virginia Woolf said that ‘Intellectual freedom depends upon material things.’  We shall explore this concept as it applies to women writers in Britain from the 17th to the early 19th century. Using a mix of literary texts we shall focus on the outspoken feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft and the more subtle female perspectives of Jane Austen in Persuasion and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in Frankenstein, asking questions about the gender barriers to success and to what extent these were transcended.

This is the first of two linked day courses exploring this topic, which can also easily be taken independently.  The second will follow in the Autumn Term