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-<br><br>This part of the website presents women authors and their writing activities. On the basis of documentation entered by NEWW-participants into the database ''WomenWriters'', we show them - using quantitative and qualitative approaches - as members of groups and sub-groups, and in some cases as individual outstanding figures. The objective is to present the writers in their context - allowing discussion of the place and role of female celebrities, and also of hitherto completely unknown or unnoticed women. <br><br>+<br><br>This part of the website presents women authors and their writing activities. On the basis of documentation entered by NEWW-participants into the database ''WomenWriters'', we show these women - using quantitative and qualitative approaches - as members of groups and sub-groups, and in some cases as individual outstanding figures. The objective is to present the writers in their context - allowing discussion of the place and role of female celebrities, and also of hitherto completely unknown or unnoticed women. <br><br>
As clearly the database ''WomenWriters'' is not "complete", any interpretation or conclusion based upon it must be considered as provisional, and in need of check and further reflection. This is what this website is meant for.<br><br> As clearly the database ''WomenWriters'' is not "complete", any interpretation or conclusion based upon it must be considered as provisional, and in need of check and further reflection. This is what this website is meant for.<br><br>
-In this project the word "author" is used in its broadest sense: a woman who wrote and published either fiction or non-fiction, books or contributions to the periodical press, her own texts or translations of writings by others, comments on others’ writings, etc. Therefore, "intermediaries" are being classified here as "authors". <br><br>+In this project the word "author" is used in its broadest sense: a woman who wrote and published either fiction or non-fiction, books or contributions to the periodical press, her own texts or translations of writings by others, comments on others’ writings, etc. Therefore, "intermediaries" are being classified here as "authors". <br><br>
This large definition is not wholly unproblematic. For example: what about oral literature? What about women, like [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=receptions&work_authorName=sevigne&work_Title=&rec_authorName=&Rec_Title=&rec_Year=&reference=&pageSize=50 Madame de Sévigné], who did not write for publication, but still exerted considerable influence, when the letters written to her daughter were published some 40 years after her death? These questions have been addressed during the first of the annual “NEWW November meetings”: [[22 November 2007]], and will be further discussed.<br><BR><br> This large definition is not wholly unproblematic. For example: what about oral literature? What about women, like [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=receptions&work_authorName=sevigne&work_Title=&rec_authorName=&Rec_Title=&rec_Year=&reference=&pageSize=50 Madame de Sévigné], who did not write for publication, but still exerted considerable influence, when the letters written to her daughter were published some 40 years after her death? These questions have been addressed during the first of the annual “NEWW November meetings”: [[22 November 2007]], and will be further discussed.<br><BR><br>
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'''QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES'''<br> '''QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES'''<br>
-<br>Authors can be classified - for the sake of their easily being found - according to the women's national identities. Here also problems arise, because of possible confusion between nationality and language. This is equally under discussion.<br><br>+<br>Authors can be classified - for the sake of their easily being found - according to the women's national identities. Here also problems arise, because of possible confusion or contradiction between nationality and language. This is equally under discussion.<br><br>
-Dutch authors are over-represented, for the moment. This has to do with the fact that the first phase of the digitizing project focused on the reception of women's writing in the Netherlands and looked for traces of ''foreign'' authors finding Dutch readers. Indeed we found the names (or pseudonyms) and works of hundreds of non-Dutch authors having found readership in the Netherlands before c.1900. In terms of sheer discovery, this is certainly rewarding, but more astonishing still was the amount of Dutch authors we found. Instead of the average dozen women that appear in current Dutch literary historiography (concerning the periods before 1900), we found more than [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=2&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn 700 Dutch names] (19th century: 400; 18th: 175; 17th: 100; earlier: 25). This sounds incredible; analyses of the data and detailed study of the reception documents themselves will have to explain our findings and may account for the discrepancy between the numbers of lost and surviving authors.<br><br>+Dutch authors are over-represented, for the moment. This has to do with the fact that the first phase of the digitizing project focused on the reception of women's writing in the Netherlands: while looking for traces of ''foreign'' authors finding Dutch readers, we found not only the names (or pseudonyms) and works of many non-Dutch authors, but also an astonishing number of Dutch women, who commented, translated, adapted the foreign texts. Instead of the average dozen women that appear in current Dutch literary historiography (concerning the periods before 1900), we found more than [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=2&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn 700 Dutch names] (19th century: 400; 18th: 175; 17th: 100; earlier: 25). This sounds incredible; analyses of the data and detailed study of the reception documents themselves will have to explain our findings and may account for the discrepancy between the numbers of lost and surviving authors.<br><br>
-For the other countries, the database ''WomenWriters'' is much less complete. Entry of data has ''not'' taken place in a systematic way: it depended on the writers' being received and read in the Netherlands and on individual interest of NEWW collaborators or occasional information being found by chance. In a next phase of the collaborative research much work is to be done here. For the moment these are the numbers per nationality, and an indication of the period concerned:<br><br>+For the other countries, the numbers of authors mentioned in the database ''WomenWriters'' are much smaller. Entry of data has ''not'' taken place in a systematic way: it depended on the writers' being received and read in the Netherlands and on individual interest of NEWW collaborators or occasional information being found by chance. In a next phase of the collaborative research much work is to be done here. For the moment these are the numbers per nationality, and an indication of the period concerned:<br><br>
* 790 [[Dutch authors]], the first being born 1200 <br> * 790 [[Dutch authors]], the first being born 1200 <br>
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* 81 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=5&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&page=1 Italy], from 1314<br> * 81 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=5&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&page=1 Italy], from 1314<br>
* 69 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=7&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Sweden], from 1303<br> * 69 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&gender=F&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&Country_ID=7&personal=&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Sweden], from 1303<br>
-* 50 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=22&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Belgium (Southern Netherlands)], from 1177 <br>+* 50 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=22&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Belgium (before 1830: Southern Netherlands)], from 1177 <br>
* 31 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=8&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Russia], from 1714 <br> * 31 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=8&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Russia], from 1714 <br>
* 28 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=12&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Denmark], from 1610<br> * 28 authors active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&year=&authorName=&notesfield=&pseudonym=1&Country_ID=12&personal=&professional=&Editor_ID=geen&bibliography=&pageSize=50&order=a.yearBorn Denmark], from 1610<br>
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* 1 author active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&authorName=&pseudonym=1&year=&Country_ID=2123&personal=&professional=&bibliography=&notesfield=&Editor_ID=geen&pageSize=50 Slovakia], from 1855. <br><br> * 1 author active in [http://www.databasewomenwriters.nl/results.asp?type=authors&authorName=&pseudonym=1&year=&Country_ID=2123&personal=&professional=&bibliography=&notesfield=&Editor_ID=geen&pageSize=50 Slovakia], from 1855. <br><br>
-These figures will be compared to figures concerning male literary production, and serve as starting points for further comparative analyses. <br><br>+These figures will have to be compared to those concerning male literary production, and serve as starting points for further research and analysis. <br><br>
Other classifications than by nationality/language are possible, and may be no less usefull. For example:<br><br> Other classifications than by nationality/language are possible, and may be no less usefull. For example:<br><br>
 +
 +'''by place of birth:'''<br>
 +*[[women born or/and living in Utrecht]], <br>
 +* or elsewhere;<br><br>
 +
'''by genre or type of writing activity:'''<br> '''by genre or type of writing activity:'''<br>
*[[translators]], <br> *[[translators]], <br>
*[[journalists]], <br> *[[journalists]], <br>
-* etc.;<br>+* etc....<br>
-'''or by place of birth or :'''<br>+ 
-*[[women born or/and living in Utrecht]], <br>+ 
-* or elsewhere;<br>+ 
-'''or by "authors' intentions", for example:''' <br>+ 
-*[[the choice of narrative developments or topoï]].<br><BR>+
'''QUALITATIVE APPROACHES'''<BR><BR> '''QUALITATIVE APPROACHES'''<BR><BR>
-[....]<BR>+'''or by "authors' intentions", for example:''' <br>
 +*[[the choice of narrative developments or topoï]].<br><BR>
-SvD, February 2009<br><br><br>+Suzan van Dijk, 5 February 2009<br><br><br>
<hr> <hr>
<br> <br>
*The writing side > <br><br> *The writing side > <br><br>

Revision as of 21:14, 5 February 2009


Women writing,
and participating in the literary field



This part of the website presents women authors and their writing activities. On the basis of documentation entered by NEWW-participants into the database WomenWriters, we show these women - using quantitative and qualitative approaches - as members of groups and sub-groups, and in some cases as individual outstanding figures. The objective is to present the writers in their context - allowing discussion of the place and role of female celebrities, and also of hitherto completely unknown or unnoticed women.

As clearly the database WomenWriters is not "complete", any interpretation or conclusion based upon it must be considered as provisional, and in need of check and further reflection. This is what this website is meant for.

In this project the word "author" is used in its broadest sense: a woman who wrote and published either fiction or non-fiction, books or contributions to the periodical press, her own texts or translations of writings by others, comments on others’ writings, etc. Therefore, "intermediaries" are being classified here as "authors".

This large definition is not wholly unproblematic. For example: what about oral literature? What about women, like Madame de Sévigné, who did not write for publication, but still exerted considerable influence, when the letters written to her daughter were published some 40 years after her death? These questions have been addressed during the first of the annual “NEWW November meetings”: 22 November 2007, and will be further discussed.


QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES


Authors can be classified - for the sake of their easily being found - according to the women's national identities. Here also problems arise, because of possible confusion or contradiction between nationality and language. This is equally under discussion.

Dutch authors are over-represented, for the moment. This has to do with the fact that the first phase of the digitizing project focused on the reception of women's writing in the Netherlands: while looking for traces of foreign authors finding Dutch readers, we found not only the names (or pseudonyms) and works of many non-Dutch authors, but also an astonishing number of Dutch women, who commented, translated, adapted the foreign texts. Instead of the average dozen women that appear in current Dutch literary historiography (concerning the periods before 1900), we found more than 700 Dutch names (19th century: 400; 18th: 175; 17th: 100; earlier: 25). This sounds incredible; analyses of the data and detailed study of the reception documents themselves will have to explain our findings and may account for the discrepancy between the numbers of lost and surviving authors.

For the other countries, the numbers of authors mentioned in the database WomenWriters are much smaller. Entry of data has not taken place in a systematic way: it depended on the writers' being received and read in the Netherlands and on individual interest of NEWW collaborators or occasional information being found by chance. In a next phase of the collaborative research much work is to be done here. For the moment these are the numbers per nationality, and an indication of the period concerned:

These figures will have to be compared to those concerning male literary production, and serve as starting points for further research and analysis.

Other classifications than by nationality/language are possible, and may be no less usefull. For example:

by place of birth:

by genre or type of writing activity:



QUALITATIVE APPROACHES

or by "authors' intentions", for example:

Suzan van Dijk, 5 February 2009




  • The writing side >

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