Abstract
Margaret Cavendish has only recently been included in the canonical literature anthologies and even then, the samplings of her prolific writings are severely truncated. However, even this small taste of Cavendish’s poems and excerpts of A Description of a New World called The Blazing World leave early British literature survey students hungry for more. Frequently, students in the survey choose to focus on Cavendish’s writing for their research projects in which they practice feminist and queer readings and engage with Cavendish as a key player in utopian and science fiction genres. Beyond the survey course, Blazing World works wonderfully in courses focused on Renaissance Utopias as well as transhistorical utopian and dystopian fiction and serves as the perfect frame text for literature and gender courses that focus on female world making. In the gender and literature course, Blazing World pairs excellently with more contemporary and intersectional feminist world makers including Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, and Alison Bechdel.
Keywords
Romance, Utopia, Gender, Science Fiction, Teaching
Recommended Citation
Rapatz, Vanessa L.
(2024)
"“A World of her own Invention”: Teaching Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World in the Early British Literature Survey and Beyond,"
ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.14: Iss.1, Article 5.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.14.1.1353
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol14/iss1/5
Included in
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons
