Women writers

Women have made significant contributions to literature since the earliest written texts. Women have been at the forefront of textual communication since early civilizations.

History

Among the first known female writers is Enheduanna; she is also the earliest known poet ever recorded. She was the High Priestess of the goddess Inanna and the moon god Nanna (Sin). She lived in the Sumerian city-state of Ur over 4,200 years ago.[1] Enheduanna's contributions to Sumerian literature, definitively ascribed to her, include several personal devotions to Inanna and a collection of hymns known as the "Sumerian Temple Hymns". Further additional texts are ascribed to her.[2] This makes her the first named author in world history.[3] She was the first known woman to hold the title of EN, a role of great political importance that was often held by royal daughters.[4] She was appointed to the role by her father, King Sargon of Akkad. Her mother was probably Queen Tashlultum.[5][6] Enheduanna was appointed to the role of High Priestess in a shrewd political move by Sargon to help secure power in the south of his kingdom, where the City of Ur was located.[7]

7th century B.C.E.

Sappho (/ˈsæfoʊ/; Aeolic Greek Ψαπφώ Psapphô; c. 630 – c. 570 BCE) was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos.[lower-alpha 1] Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre.[8] Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has survived only in fragmentary form, except for one complete poem: the "Ode to Aphrodite". As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.

15th century

Christine de Pizan was the most known late medieval French writer, rhetorician, and critic, wrote Book of the City of Ladies in 1405, a text about an allegorical city in which independent women lived free from the slander of men. In her work she included real women artists, such as Anastasia, who was considered one of the best Parisian illuminators, although none of her work has survived. Other humanist texts led to increased education for Italian women.

16th century

Gulbadan Banu, daughter of Mughal Emperor Babur wrote the biography of her brother, Emperor Humayun

19th century
Angelica Kauffman, Literature and Painting, 1782, Kenwood House

One of the most known 19th century female writers was Jane Austen author of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion.

Artists from this period include the following:

The followed is a list of Interdisciplinar female writers of 19th century:

20th century
JK Rowling, receives Doctor honoris causa from Aberdeen University in Sweden July 6 2006

On 20th century women produced many books of all genres, among fiction books can be named books such Harry Potter and The House of the Spirits, among others, the followed is a list of female writers of 20th century:

Women awarded with Nobel Prize in Literature

The followed women have won Nobel Prize in Literature

See also

Notes
  1. The fragments of Sappho's poetry are conventionally referred to by fragment number, though some also have one or more common names. The most commonly used numbering system is that of E. M. Voigt, which in most cases matches the older Lobel-Page system. Unless otherwise specified, the numeration in this article is from Diane Rayor and André Lardinois' Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works, which uses Voigt's numeration with some variations to account for the fragments of Sappho discovered since Voigt's edition was published.

References
  1. Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary by Jeremy Black and Anthony Green (1992, ISBN 0-292-70794-0), p. 134 (entry "Nanna-Suen").
  2. Hallo and Van Dijk 1968 p. 3.
  3. Roberta Binkley (2004). "Reading the Ancient Figure of Enheduanna". Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks. SUNY Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780791460993.
  4. J Renger 1967: "Untersuchungen zum Priestertum in der altbabylonischen Zeit", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. Vol. 58. p. 118.
  5. Elisabeth Meier Tetlow (2004). Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society: The ancient Near East. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1628-5. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  6. Michael Roaf (1992). Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East. Stonehenge Press. ISBN 978-0-86706-681-4. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  7. Franke, p. 831
  8. Freeman 2016, p. 8.
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