Anne Bradstreet

1
Anne Bradstreet

• 1612 - 1672
• Some Key Features Of Her Writing

2
Early Writing

• Classical Poetical Devices and Form
• Iambic pentameter
• Quatrains
• References and allusions to classical cultures
• Intentional variation to signify rhetorical
  effect or emphasis
• in rhythms
• syntax,
• End rhymes
• Extended metaphor and metaphysical conceits
• In the tradition of English Metaphysical Poets
  Andrew Marvell and John Donne
• A sophisticated use of wit and irony to explore
  complex spiritual paradoxes

3
Subtext

• Use of traditional poetical devices belies a
  non-traditional view of the role of women in
  Puritan society
• Alternatives to the Bible for sources of
  authority
• Literature and mythology
• Mythic and historic heroines
• The maternal domestic role
• The use of irony to allow her to say what she
  could not otherwise say openly
• Self-effacing apologies
• A subdued confidence in her own ability to
  instruct and to experience life

4
Early Influences

• Dangers of living in Puritan society
• Anne Hutchinson, a contemporary
• Other Puritan women who did not receive her level
  of education
• Puritan male audiences who were reading the work
  of a Puritan woman
• An educated and literary background
• European audiences who were reading the
  experiences of a colonist
• Self-consciousness about the creation of a
  divergent literary tradition in the Colonies

5
Later Influence

• Life Experience
• Love and Sex
• Motherhood and infant mortality
• Loss and disaster
• Political change
• Spirituality
• Crisis and reconciliation of faith
• Puritan role of mother
• The increasing importance of Puritan life over
  her career as a writer (from feminist to
  traditionalist)