Women's Epistolary Networks, 1600-1700: Ireland and Beyond

Descripción del proyecto

La correspondencia de las mujeres de la familia Boyle

El proyecto WEN, financiado con fondos europeos, estudiará cómo una familia de mujeres del siglo XVII se escribía por el territorio europeo. Fechadas entre el 1605 y el 1691, han sobrevivido más de trescientas cincuenta cartas manuscritas de las mujeres de la familia Boyle: la mujer, las hijas, las nueras y las nietas de Richard Boyle, el primer conde de Cork. Aunque Boyle, terrateniente y político de gran éxito, y sus hijos han recibido una atención académica considerable, el rico legado epistolar de las mujeres de su familia ha permanecido en gran parte inexplorado. Las cartas existentes de las mujeres, que abarcan tres generaciones diferentes, ofrecen una perspectiva poco común sobre la experiencia de género en una época de cambios tumultuosos en Irlanda y Gran Bretaña. Los hallazgos de este estudio, que transformarán nuestra comprensión de la relación entre la literatura, la historia y la escritura de las mujeres, se difundirán a través de un sitio web, una importante edición académica, una conferencia y un volumen de ensayos coeditados.

Objetivo

Collaborating with Dr Ramona Wray (RW) of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), an authority in editing and early modern women’s writing, the experienced researcher, Dr Ann-Maria Walsh (AMW), will undertake a fellowship – Women’s Epistolary Networks, 1600-1700: Ireland and Beyond (WEN) – to examine how one family of seventeenth-century women corresponded across European territories. At the centre of the fellowship are the 350+ manuscript letters produced between 1605 and 1691 by the Boyle women – the wife, daughters, daughters-in-law and grand-daughters of the 1st Earl of Cork. These extant and largely unexplored letters reflect the perspectives of three different generations and coincide with a hugely significant and tumultuous period in Irish, British and European history. Interweaving the disciplines of English, history, gender studies, Irish studies and European Studies, the fellowship will transform understandings of the relationship between literature, history and women’s writing. The fellowship will facilitate AMW’s mobility and produce a website, a major scholarly edition, an interdisciplinary conference and a co-edited volume of essays. Relevant training will run throughout the fellowship. A secondment will ground the fellowship’s archival scholarship in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and equip AMW with practical experience of archiving, curatorship and electronic cataloguing. This will allow AMW to develop the skills necessary to work effectively across European archives and embed the intersectoral skills increasingly required of an academic today. In addition, the mentorship of RW will provide an apprenticeship in editing which, alongside a previously published monograph, will establish AMW as a leading scholar of seventeenth century women’s history and literature. In this way, the fellowship will advance AMW in her scholarly achievements and richly enhance her career prospects.