Women's Epistolary Utterance

Advances in Historical Orthography, c. 1500–1800

“…Williams posits that persistent idiosyncratic spellings in the correspondence of Maria and Joan Thynne index their 'learning, their relationship with the written language, and possibly even their epistolary 'voice'': '[I]t is hard to imagine that familiar correspondents would have completely missed an individual's personal habits of orthography'. 44 Such interpretations fit with the early modern Erasmian theorisation of the letter as intimate conversation, in which one's handwriting creates the illusion that the recipient is 'listening to their [authors'] voices and looking at them face to face'. 45 In essence, one's epistolary language undertakes identity work.…”

“…Evidence of Joan's education is indirect: her marriage-broker describes her as 'wyll brvght vp bothe in larnyng & in all thyngs that do a parten to a gentyllwoman'. 68 Joan was responsible for the running of her household, alongside advancing the political career of her husband. The correspondence sub-periods span the early (Part A) and later (Part B) years of her marriage.…”

Literacy, Identity and Gender: A Case Study of Love Letter Writing Practices from Pakistan

“…Del Lungo Camiciotti (2014) in his article offers an overview to recent scholarship on epistolary discourse and practices in early modern culture. At the intersection of historical pragmatics and the study of manuscript letters various significant studies may be located such as Williams (2013), who proposes a multidimensional analysis of letters defined as a particular type of written communicative activity that can be best understood by viewing the original sources. When the epistolary manifestation of correspondents' attitudes towards each other is examined through the use of speech acts, rhetorical strategies, and linguistic conventions of letter writing, it is possible not only to hear past epistolary 'voices' (Steen, 1988), but also to shed light on familial and wider social contexts.…”