WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Jan. 30, 2018 — West Liberty University Associate Professor of English Dr. Angela Rehbein co-edited a recent book of essays on women’s literature titled Women’s Literary Networks and Romanticism: “A Tribe of Authoresses.” The book is the first to focus specifically on women’s literary networks during the Romantic period.
Rehbein co-edited the book with Professor Andrew O. Winckles of Adrian College, located in Michigan, a professor she has worked with in the past. Published by Liverpool University Press, the book will be useful for both research scholars and students alike.
“I’m very proud of Angela’s work. When I scanned the volume, I found it to be a great collection that includes rare material from neglected archives,” said Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Dr. Gerald NeCastro.
The book is important because it “shifts attention away from major metropolitan centers and demonstrates the significance of local and regional centers of literary production” Rehbein believes.
Why did she choose this topic?
“I took on this project because it aligns with my research interests in women writers of the British Romantic Period (1780-1830). Specifically, I am interested in what is often referred to as scholarship of recovery: investigating the lives and literary output of women writers who have been forgotten by traditional literary scholarship, many of whom were well-known and respected in their own time.
“These writers have much to tell us about the literary culture of this period, and this book of essays on literary networks is one contribution to this larger aim of recovery. As an added bonus, this project also gave me a chance to work with scholars whom I respect and admire,” she said.
She met Winckles at a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar in Lincoln Nebraska in 2013 led by scholar Stephen C. Behrendt (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and this seminar resulted in the scholarly collaboration that ultimately led to the research and publication of this book.
“Other researchers who study the British Romantic Period, as well as researchers interested in women’s writing and women’s literary history, will find this book of interest. It can also be a useful teaching tool, expanding students’ knowledge of issues related to gender, authorial identity, and literary history.”
Utilizing new digital methodologies for collecting and analyzing data about women’s literary production, the new book offers a fresh perspective on the role of gender in shaping authorial identity in the Romantic period.
Her previous research on author Jane West was published in Eighteenth Century Fiction and she also single-authored an article on Elizabeth Inchbald, an English novelist, actress and dramatist dating to the Romantic period.
An associate professor of English, she teaches classes in composition, British literature, and World literature. Outside of her academic life, she is an avid runner and also plays women’s flat track roller derby with the Ohio Valley Roller Girls. She can be reached at 304-336-8818.
To read more about her latest publication or to order a copy of Women’s Literary Networks and Romanticism, please visit the publisher’s website.
Established in 1837, West Liberty University is West Virginia’s oldest institution. Today it offers more than 70 undergraduate majors, plus a growing number of graduate programs including master’s in education, physician assistant studies, criminology, biology, professional studies and an online MBA.