Lucy Hutchinson and the English Revolution: Gender, Genre, and History Writing
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Author Description
In Lucy Hutchinson and the English Revolution, Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille explores Lucy Hutchinson's historical writings and the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, which, although composed between 1664 and 1667, were first published in 1806. The Memoirs were a best-seller in the nineteenth century, but largely fell into oblivion in the twentieth century. They were rediscovered in the late 1980s by historians and literary scholars interested in women's writing, the emerging culture of republicanism, and dissent. By approaching the Memoirs through the prism of history and form, this book challenges the widely-held assumption that early modern women did not - and could not - write the history of wars, a field that was supposedly gendered as masculine. On the contrary, Gheeraert-Graffeuille shows that Lucy Hutchinson, a reader of ancient history and an outstanding Latinist, was a historian of the English Revolution, to be ranked alongside Richard Baxter, Edmund Ludlow, and Edward Hyde.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates whether Lucy Hutchinson’s historical writings, specifically the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, challenge the traditional gendered exclusion of women from early modern historiography. Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille, a scholar specializing in early modern literature and history, utilizes a rigorous analysis of Hutchinson’s education, her engagement with classical texts, and her political context to argue that she functioned as a significant historian of the English Revolution. The book posits that Hutchinson’s work deserves placement alongside prominent male contemporaries like Richard Baxter and Edward Hyde, thereby dismantling the assumption that war history was an exclusively masculine domain.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson as a historical document.
- Examination of Hutchinson’s intellectual background, including her proficiency in Latin and classical history.
- Discussion of the intersection between republicanism, dissent, and gender roles in the seventeenth century.
- Evaluation of the reception history of Hutchinson’s work from the nineteenth century to the present.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive biography of Lucy Hutchinson outside of her role as a writer and historian.
- It does not offer a general history of the English Revolution, focusing instead on the specific historiographical contributions of the subject.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in the field of early modern studies recognize this text as a significant contribution to the recovery and re-evaluation of women’s intellectual history. Experts frequently highlight the author's meticulous approach to form and genre as a necessary corrective to previous dismissals of Hutchinson’s historical agency.
Page Count:
355
Publication Date:
2022-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192672029
ISBN-13:
9780192672025
History
Biography
English
History - Modern
Literary Criticism
Great Britain
Womens Studies
English & College Success
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