Collections/ Online Texts/ Sites on Genres
Updated February, 2004: A number of new sites have been added to this section on collections and genres.
January, 2004: The names of sites with broken links have been left, in case I can find them under another URL in the future. Since websites with anthologies of women's writing in certain time periods are rare, hopefully some of these are still online. This page was first created in 1999, so it is, at least, encouraging that most of the anthologies are still up, nearly five years later.
Updated Link! A Celebration of Women Writers is an amazing and wonderful ongoing project to add the full text of works by women writers who have been overlooked and left out of the literary canon at times, although they definitely belong there and their words are important. If you are interested in women's literature at all, you should definitely visit this site.They feature writers from 3000 BC through the 20th century. I am very happy to report that the site is not offline, as I had thought, it moved to a new URL.
British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832 is a collection of online texts from the University of California (broken link)
Chicana and Latina Writers page from the Chicana Feminst Homepage suggests books by chicana authors and has links to poetry on the web and information about chicana/latina lit.
The Kassandra Project: Visionary German Women around 1800 has biographies and bibliographies of women writing in this period and their works. (broken link)
Perdita: Early Women's Manuscript Compilations "The aim is to complete a database, to be published on the Internet, which offers bibliographical information and detailed descriptions of contents for the information of historians and literary scholars. The database will also include the team's research on the manuscripts and their compilers." (broken link)
Third World Women Bibliography: A site on books on topics of concern to third world women. It is in English, French and Spanish. (broken link)
Women in German "provides a democratic forum for all people interested in feminist approaches to German literature and culture or in the intersection of gender with other categories of analysis such as sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity"
Women: Romantic Era Writers is a large collection of online texts from the University of Nottingham. It also includes modern articles about these writers..
Women of the Romantic Period "uses Richard Polwhele's poem "The Unsex'd Females" to introduce students and scholars alike to some of the British Romantic Period's foremost female contributors. In his poem, Polwhele invokes the rigid standard of feminine behavior held by many members of eighteenth-century society as he asserts that a certain breed of women -- the unsex'd females -- transgressed the limits of that which was acceptable. Since Polwhele addresses these women by name in "The Unsex'd Females," the poem provides a means of examining closely some of the many female figures often excluded from the traditional British Romantic Period canon." (broken link)
Women Writers of the Middle Ages has many online texts (broken link)
The Women Writers Project from Brown University is a collection of texts online by pre-Victorian writers. You have to subscribe to be able to access the electronic texts.This is an excellent resource if you are interested in writers from this era.
Women Writing in French - info about Simone de Bevoir and others (broken link)
Zan is a directory/anthology of literature and art by Iranian women
Individual Writers: a select list
Judy Blume's Home Base is the official site by and about this contemporary author of empowering novels for young women and adults
Aphra Behn was probably the first published woman writer in Enland. She was a feminist born in 1640. This page offers a little bit of information about her. Update: Here is another good resource: The Aphra Behn Society Homepage.
The Bronte Sisters Web is a comprehensive collection of links to information about and online texts by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.
Pearl S. Buck was not only a phenomenal writer but also a humanitarian. This site from the University of Pennsylvania gives information about her works and her charitable foundation
Kate Chopin - a collection of online texts including her classic novel The Awakening
Emily Dickinson - a page of some of her poems online from the University of Maryland
Nadine Gordimer is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and short story writer
Zora Neale Hurston - information, essays, some of her stories online, pictures of her and a disucssion group. This is an excellent web site.
June Jordan was a revolutionary poet and I have never seen a very comprehensive site about her yet. There is a small amount of information about her at the Academy of American Poets' site. You can read one of her poems and a list of some of her books, here now, "Poem About My Rights" (It's one of the most popular pages people visit on this website. People frequently arrive here by searching for that poem). You can buy several books of June Jordan's poetry on this site, at the recommended books page, and on the poetry page.
Jamaica Kincaid - a page with biographical information, a description of some common themes in her writing and links to a few interviews
A Celebration, This Is is a very comprehensive site on Plath with a description of her life and works along with most of poems online, organized in their original book format (update: last time I checked, all the poems had been removed from the site)
Mary Wallstonecraft (Shelley) Chronology and Resource Site has a bibliography and chronological description of her life with information not always found in libraries
Margaret Walker - from the Modern American Poetry site, some biographical info, commentary on some of her work and excerpt from a memoriam written when she died in 1998. I met her a few years ago at the Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Florida. She was a great lady and and her powerful poetry is too often overlooked.
Virginia Woolf Web is a site with links to online texts of some of her works and discussion lists
