Other Women’s Voices: Translations of Women’s Writing Before 1700:
The site offers an introduction to over 125 women who wrote a substantial amount before 1700 and whose work (or at least a good part of it) has been translated into modern English. All but three entries are on women who wrote in languages other than English; those three are on women who wrote in the English of the 1300s and 1400s. Almost all of the entries are on individuals; a few are on more than one woman.The site’s goal is to get you to want to read all that is available in translation (or in the original if you can) of these women’s writing. Why all? You need to read the whole work in order to hear the writer’s full voice. Anthologies are admirable, but in reading them you eavesdrop on a small part of a conversation; you need to go to the whole to hear the writer’s full conversation with her world.
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You will find three women telling of their experiences in prison (Perpetua, Leonor Lopez de Cordoba, Leonora Ulfeldt), and one woman trying to come to grips with another kind of prison—total deafness (Teresa de Cartagena).
Five describe their own experience of war (Li Qingzhao, Daibu, Gulbadan, Olympia Morata, Anne Marie Louise de Montpensier), while three others write in praise of war and warriors (Auvaiyar, Khansa, Laila).
One tells of a theft she carried out (Helene Kottanner), and another writes in praise of a smuggler (Huneberc).
Via MetaFilter.
Posted by Amy as Women's Writing at 1:35 AM EDT