The aim of ‘Her Stories’, the new WSG virtual reading group, is to provide an opportunity for members to discuss together a diverse range of literary texts; from novels, to plays and critical texts. Taking our WSG timeline of 1558-1837 as a general guide, there will be 3-4 one hour reading group sessions a year, with participants proposing and selecting the texts in a 30 min pre-meeting at the start of each annual reading group schedule.
Each virtual reading group session will be co-ordinated and facilitated by Karen Lipsedge and will open to all WSG members. The selected text discussed at each session of ‘Her Stories’ will be determined by participants and, thus, the themes and questions raised and discussed will vary accordingly. To ensure that all participants can contribute to each reading group session, however, at the start of each meeting of ‘Her Story’ each participant will share one thing they thought was noteworthy about the selected text. Based on my experience, this strategy serves as an inclusive ice breaker and is also the ideal conversation starter.
If you are interested in taking part in ‘Her Stories’, by Monday 9th September 2024 please contact Karen directly on K.Lipsedge@Kingston.ac.uk. Please also suggest one text that you would like ‘Her Stories’ to discuss in one of the forthcoming sessions.
Here are some of my suggestions for forthcoming sessions of ‘Her Story’
(NB. All of these have accessible versions and links to some of those)
anonymous Eliza’s Babes: or The Virgins–offering (1652)
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters, 1716-18; and 1793 and/or Lady Nugent’s Journal, first published in 1839
The parrot. With A compendium of the times. By the authors of the Female spectator. 1746
Mary Robinson, Walsingham: Or, The Pupil of Nature (1797)
Amanda Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women’s History’, The Historical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Jun., 1993), pp. 383-414.Cambridge University Press
Saidiya Hartman, ‘Venus in Two Acts ‘, Small Axe (2008) 12 (2): 1–14.
Women's Studies Group 1558 - 1837 