Knowledge-Making in Early Modern Englishwomen’s Literary Writings, 1570 -1650

Knowledge-Making in Early Modern Englishwomen’s Literary Writings, 1570-1650 investigates early modern Englishwomen’s exploration of scientific ideas and epistemological inquiries in several literary forms, arguing that their chosen literary conventions significantly influenced their epistemic exploration of science, and vice versa. The literary works of Englishwomen writers, rich with valuable scientific insights, have often been neglected in the field, and their contributions have yet to be fully integrated into the canon of English scientific history. In this dissertation, I rectify the historical oversight regarding Englishwomen’s contributions by demonstrating their active participation in scientific and epistemological thinking of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through their literary productions. This dissertation analyzes four literary works from the 1570s to the 1650s: Isabella Whitney’s anthology A Sweet Nosegay (1573), Elizabeth Cary’s closet drama The Tragedy of Mariam (1613), Lady Mary Wroth’s prose romance The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania (1621), and Hester Pulter’s poetry collection Poems Breathed Forth by the Noble Hadassa (1640s-50s). I trace how these women writers deployed and reshaped epistemological inquiry to suit their creative endeavors, which reveals that literary forms served as vehicles for their investigation of scientific epistemologies, actively contributing to the scientific conversations of their time. Women writers critiqued, reinterpreted, and navigated theoretical knowledge, demonstrating a dynamic intersection between science, literature, and cultural narrative. In this way, literary forms provided these women with the means to question and reshape prevailing knowledge systems, offering diverse perspectives that are essential for fully historicizing women’s knowledge-making in the early modern period. My project ultimately challenges the idea that science and art exist separately and highlights how creative and intellectual pursuits enhance and inform each other.