Reading, Writing, and Initialing
Female Literacy in Early Modern London
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10065637 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eleanor Hubbard (0000-0002-5980-0032, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 553-577 |
| Publication date | 2015-06-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/jbr.2015.61 |
| OpenAlex | W2200650792 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 32 |
This article reopens the vexed question of how many women in early modern England could read by calling attention to the precise ways in which women marked, initialed, and signed legal depositions in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century London. It shows that initialing and signing were closely correlated skills, and it argues that women who wrote their initials had begun to learn how to read. Using initials as a proxy for elementary reading literacy, it goes on to map female literacy in early modern London, showing that urban upbringings fostered female literacy and that reading literacy was far more broadly socially diffused than the ability to write. Changes in initialing patterns as women aged suggest that women found reading to be useful and relevant to their lives, and that literacy carried social prestige
Early literacy · Linguistics · Literacy · Pedagogy · Political science · Prestige · Reading (process · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy
Small books and pleasant histories
Consumption and the World of Goods
Cheap print and popular piety, 1550-1640
The Written word
Literacy and the Social Order
Literacy in Traditional Societies
Never Married
Early Modern Women’s Letter Writing, 1450–1700
Debating Gender in Early Modern England, 1500–1700
Women's Reading Practices in Seventeenth-Century England
Reading Material in Early Modern England
Pens and Needles
Medieval Single Women
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Femme Sole Status in England, 1300–1630
Opening the Nursery Door
The Problem of Literacy in Early Modern England
Dido's Daughters
Literacy and the social order
The Female Labour Market in London in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
Literacy and Social Development in the West
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |