Bowring, Barbara (2018). From penury to published poet: the cultural journey of Ann Yearsley. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
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Bowring18PhD.pdf
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Abstract
Ann Yearsley (1752-1806) was a humble rural worker who sold milk for a living, but was best known as a poet. Her success in getting a significant amount of work published dismissed the contemporary notion that to be poor and uneducated precluded a life of letters. This thesis examines the constraints and repressions faced by a woman from the lower orders with a will to write. Ann Yearsley’s journey into print is framed in the context of the poet’s effective negotiation through an eighteenth-century society still rooted in gender and class ideology and restraints.
This study is distinctive in offering an updated account of an unlikely literary career. This is not a literary study of Yearsley, but offers a nuanced and critical reading of Yearsley’s poetry and correspondence to throw new light on her personal struggle to become a professional writer. This thesis concludes that Ann Yearsley was an important cultural figure in her time because she overcame the difficulties encountered by a female writer from the lower orders. In doing this she showed that a window existed for other women from the laboring classes to become published writers.
Type of Work: | Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.) | |||||||||
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Award Type: | Doctorates > Ph.D. | |||||||||
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College/Faculty: | Colleges (2008 onwards) > College of Arts & Law | |||||||||
School or Department: | School of History and Cultures | |||||||||
Funders: | None/not applicable | |||||||||
Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature |
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URI: | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/8321 |
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