Women Poets, Male Publishers

We are often told that the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s led to the rediscovery of forgotten women writers. Without feminist presses such as Virago, these women would have sunk into obscurity. Thanks to Carmen Callil and other trailblazing feminist publishers, a canon of women’s literature...

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Hovedforfatter: Jaillant, Lise
Format: Online
Sprog:engelsk
Udgivet: Springer Nature 2025
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author Jaillant, Lise
author_browse Jaillant, Lise
author_facet Jaillant, Lise
author_sort Jaillant, Lise
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description We are often told that the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s led to the rediscovery of forgotten women writers. Without feminist presses such as Virago, these women would have sunk into obscurity. Thanks to Carmen Callil and other trailblazing feminist publishers, a canon of women’s literature emerged, and living writers managed to survive and sometimes thrive in a literary marketplace that had so far been dominated by men. Although obstacles remained, the story is one of the triumphs over a misogynistic publishing industry—a sector that had once sought to erase women writers of the past, marginalise living authors, and close the doors to any future legacy. There are two problems with this oft-repeated story. First, it focuses mainly on fiction rather than poetry (founded in 1973, Virago did not start publishing poetry until the early 1980s). Second, it neglects the major role that conservative male publishers played in (re)discovering women poets in post-1960s Britain. With the growing influence of the Women’s Liberation movement, these publishers realised that there was a growing market for poetry by women. At the same time, the Arts Council of Great Britain started pushing for more diversity, nudging its “clients” to make more room for women and ethnic minorities. Drawing on extensive archival work and oral history interviews, this open access book pushes the boundaries of a scholarship that has focused mainly on women’s poetry in relation to women’s presses. Archival documents show the influence of the Arts Council and the market in pushing conservative publishers towards more diversity. This evolution has had long-term consequences on the canon of women’s poetry, a canon that was largely shaped by conservative publishing houses rather than radical feminist presses.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1584072025-05-20T05:09:56Z Women Poets, Male Publishers Jaillant, Lise Twentieth Cenutry British Poetry Publishers and Editors Women Poets Second-Wave Feminism Literary Canon Arts Council of Great Britain Elizabeth Jennings Sylvia Plath Hilda Doolittle Carcanet Press Virago thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSC Literary studies: poetry and poets thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KN Industry and industrial studies::KNT Media, entertainment, information and communication industries::KNTP Publishing industry and journalism thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history We are often told that the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s led to the rediscovery of forgotten women writers. Without feminist presses such as Virago, these women would have sunk into obscurity. Thanks to Carmen Callil and other trailblazing feminist publishers, a canon of women’s literature emerged, and living writers managed to survive and sometimes thrive in a literary marketplace that had so far been dominated by men. Although obstacles remained, the story is one of the triumphs over a misogynistic publishing industry—a sector that had once sought to erase women writers of the past, marginalise living authors, and close the doors to any future legacy. There are two problems with this oft-repeated story. First, it focuses mainly on fiction rather than poetry (founded in 1973, Virago did not start publishing poetry until the early 1980s). Second, it neglects the major role that conservative male publishers played in (re)discovering women poets in post-1960s Britain. With the growing influence of the Women’s Liberation movement, these publishers realised that there was a growing market for poetry by women. At the same time, the Arts Council of Great Britain started pushing for more diversity, nudging its “clients” to make more room for women and ethnic minorities. Drawing on extensive archival work and oral history interviews, this open access book pushes the boundaries of a scholarship that has focused mainly on women’s poetry in relation to women’s presses. Archival documents show the influence of the Arts Council and the market in pushing conservative publishers towards more diversity. This evolution has had long-term consequences on the canon of women’s poetry, a canon that was largely shaped by conservative publishing houses rather than radical feminist presses. 2025-04-15T04:04:51Z 2025-04-15T04:04:51Z 2025-04-14T12:59:03Z 2025 book ONIX_20250414_9783031841545_51 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100808 9783031841538 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/158407 eng New Directions in Book History open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100808/1/9783031841545.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100808/1/9783031841545.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100808/1/9783031841545.pdf Springer Nature Palgrave Macmillan 10.1007/978-3-031-84154-5 10.1007/978-3-031-84154-5 9fa3421d-f917-4153-b9ab-fc337c396b5a 9783031841538 Palgrave Macmillan 272 Cham open access
spellingShingle Twentieth Cenutry British Poetry
Publishers and Editors
Women Poets
Second-Wave Feminism
Literary Canon
Arts Council of Great Britain
Elizabeth Jennings
Sylvia Plath
Hilda Doolittle
Carcanet Press
Virago
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSC Literary studies: poetry and poets
thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KN Industry and industrial studies::KNT Media, entertainment, information and communication industries::KNTP Publishing industry and journalism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
Jaillant, Lise
Women Poets, Male Publishers
title Women Poets, Male Publishers
title_full Women Poets, Male Publishers
title_fullStr Women Poets, Male Publishers
title_full_unstemmed Women Poets, Male Publishers
title_short Women Poets, Male Publishers
title_sort women poets male publishers
topic Twentieth Cenutry British Poetry
Publishers and Editors
Women Poets
Second-Wave Feminism
Literary Canon
Arts Council of Great Britain
Elizabeth Jennings
Sylvia Plath
Hilda Doolittle
Carcanet Press
Virago
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSC Literary studies: poetry and poets
thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KN Industry and industrial studies::KNT Media, entertainment, information and communication industries::KNTP Publishing industry and journalism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
topic_facet Twentieth Cenutry British Poetry
Publishers and Editors
Women Poets
Second-Wave Feminism
Literary Canon
Arts Council of Great Britain
Elizabeth Jennings
Sylvia Plath
Hilda Doolittle
Carcanet Press
Virago
thema EDItEUR::G Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects::GL Library and information sciences / Museology
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSC Literary studies: poetry and poets
thema EDItEUR::K Economics, Finance, Business and Management::KN Industry and industrial studies::KNT Media, entertainment, information and communication industries::KNTP Publishing industry and journalism
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history
url ONIX_20250414_9783031841545_51
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