Discovering Aemilia Lanyer in 2027

Woods, Susanne; Woods, Susanne

The organizer of this panel session is the editor of the first modern scholarly edition of Aemilia Lanyer’s poetry (Oxford, 1993), and she and Brice Peterson have now been contracted by Oxford to produce an entirely new scholarly edition, taking into account all the critical work done in the last 35 years on editing as well as on Lanyer and her poems. The panel presenters are a distinguished scholar, Margaret Ezell, and an early career scholar of great promise, Amber Bird, with a response by a mid-career scholar, Brice Peterson. The session would allow the panelists and other participants to learn from each other new directions in Lanyer scholarship, by extension applicable to related scholarship on early modern women writers more generally.

The President’s theme this year is particularly pertinent for this exploration. Lanyer’s work is itself an “Emancipatory Narrative.” Her book of poems, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611), is centered by a poem on Christ’s passion, told entirely from women’s points of view (including a defense of Eve in the voice of Pilate’s wife). It is preceded by eleven dedicatory pieces, all to women, including a prose praise of women reflective of the traditional querelle des femmes but more assertive. Lanyer’s book is widely recognized as the first serious effort by a woman poet to seek the patronage and professional status of her contemporaries, several of whom she probably knew. Samuel Daniel almost certainly: Lanyer worked at least for a time in the household of Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, possibly as a language or music tutor for Cumberland's daughter, Anne Clifford; Daniel was Anne's principal tutor. Additionally, Lanyer was at court, as the mistress of Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Lord Hunsdon, in 1990 when Edmund Spenser paid his visit at the time he published Books I-III of The Faerie Queene. Another probable acquaintance was Ben Jonson, who was close to members of Lanyer's husband's family, especially Jonson's ""good friend," Nicholas Lanier.

Two recent books, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Women Writers in English 1540 -1700, ed. Elizabeth Scott-Bauman et al. (Oxford, 2022) and Lara Dodd and Michelle M. Down, Early Modern Women’s Writing & the Future of Literary History (Oxford, 2026) argue for the urgency of a renewed examination of and perspective on early women writers, who have come of age as recognized figures of English literary history. In addition, Brice Peterson and Kimberly Johnson have recently edited The Cambridge Companion to Aemilia Lanyer, to appear early next year.

The panel will begin with two formal papers of 17 minutes each. Dr. Bird will describe the materiality of the book in Lanyer's time, and, in particular, Lanyer's use of that materiality as a form of communion among Christ, herself as maker of the book, and her patrons. Professor Ezell will describe the patterns of material publication for women that developed in the 17th century and early 18th century at the time of and after the publication of Layer's book in 1611, and relate that history to modern issues of communication and publication. Professor Peterson, in 15 minutes, will follow with an analysis of recent Lanyer criticism as it feeds into the issues raised by the two main papers. We expect to have at least 20 minutes for questions and discussion at the end. We hope that Lanyer's "emancipatory" volume will provide a platform for a lively discussion of what it means to "publish," among other questions.

In 2027 we face renewed concern about expressions of freedom in the English-speaking tradition, making it timely to situate Lanyer studies in this new context. The panelists are gifted scholars and thinkers at various career stages, whose mutual insights promise to enlighten each other and the participants.

198 Discovering Aemilia Lanyer in 2027: Calls for Papers