Breaking the Silence: Women, Censorship, and the Reformation
The advent of printing was particularly welcome to women of the sixteenth century, who had been excluded from most arenas of public debate, for it provided access to packaged learning in the privacy of their own homes. By the same token, women were allergic to any censorship of books, especially of...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
1996
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In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 1996, Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Pages: 97-109 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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Summary: | The advent of printing was particularly welcome to women of the sixteenth century, who had been excluded from most arenas of public debate, for it provided access to packaged learning in the privacy of their own homes. By the same token, women were allergic to any censorship of books, especially of those in the vernacular, which closed down this option. Moreover, a small minority of women was enabled to contribute to the formation of public opinion through books and pamphlets. This is exemplified in the case of Argula von Grumbach, Protestantism's first woman author, who championed freedom of speech as integral to the Christian Gospel. In a series of eight publications in 1523 and 1524, with a circulation of some thirty thousand copies, she modeled the right and obligation of women to speak out on religious and social issues, using trenchant scriptural arguments to defend their right to do so. |
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ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/2544271 |