At Home in the World: Women Writers and Public Life, from Austen to the Present

A bold literary history that says women's writing is defined less by domestic concerns than by an engagement with public life

In a bold and sweeping reevaluation of the past two centuries of women's writing, At Home in the World argues that this work has been defined less by domestic concerns than by an active engagement with the most pressing issues of public life: from class and religious divisions, slavery, warfare, and labor unrest to democracy, tyranny, globalism, and the clash of cultures. Maria DiBattista and Deborah Epstein Nord show that even the most seemingly traditional works by British, American, and other English-language women writers redefine the domestic sphere in ways that incorporate the concerns of public life. Exploring works by a wide range of writers, including canonical, neglected, and contemporary figures, this compelling and concise literary history uncovers the public concerns of women writers who ventured into ever-wider geographical, cultural, and political territories, forging new definitions of what it means to create a home in the world.

Author: Maria DiBattista, Deborah Epstein Nord
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 06/18/2019
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.60w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780691191430

About the Author
Maria DiBattista is the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English at Princeton University. Deborah Epstein Nord is the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University.