Research team
A woman's lot. Women's participation in the public sphere in the late medieval and early modern Low Countries (1450-1650) by means of lottery-rhymes.
Abstract
"A Woman's Lot" investigates what women said in public and what was said about women in public in the late medieval and early modern Low Countries (1450-1650). It will analyse public statements by both women and men to see if this is truly a time in which women were pushed out of the public into the private domain, as many scholars maintain, and if perceptions of women changed during the time period. By using lottery-rhymes, short verses submitted by buyers of both genders from many different social groups that were read out on stage during lottery-draws, this project will avoid the pitfalls of earlier research on women in the public sphere, which mostly focused on: 1) women writers, who represent only women from the highest social groups; 2) subversive speech, instead of a wider range of topics; 3) women as the only category, without comparing them to men. The PhD-project will analyse the rhymes using a combination of distant and close reading in order to: 1) identify different types of female public statements and public statements about women and link these statements to gender, regional and income variables; 2) lay bare processes of stereotyping and self-definition; 3) examine the way in which these statements are linked with other texts; 4) verify whether these topics were subject to change throughout the period. Lastly, it aims to explain changes and/or constants over time, as well as differences along gender lines, region and income levels.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Puttevils Jeroen
- Fellow: Terwisscha van Scheltinga Marly
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Back to the Future: future expectations in the Low Countries, 1400-1600.
Abstract
Back to the Future investigates future expectations in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Low Countries. The analysis of the semantics and the contents of written future statements will verify whether the future began to be perceived as open and uncertain, and if an assumed transition to modernity caused by the rise of capitalism and changes in beliefs took place. This project goes beyond the current research which focused on: 1) the revolutionary eighteenth century; 2) the learned texts written by the intelligentsia; 3) singular accounts of the future: divination, magic and the eschatological end of times, without looking into their interplay with other types of future expectations (for example, more short term or secular expectations). This project draws on a large source collection of merchant correspondence. These letters will be digitized, future statements will be selected and entered into a database which will include variables about the semantics and future horizons of these expressions, the identities of the authors, and the actions motivated by the future expectation. The project has three key outcomes: 1) a fuller understanding of people's perception of the future and how they framed it; 2) it can be (dis)proven whether a shift in thoughts and beliefs about the future did occur and whether this is in line with narratives of modernity and the rise of capitalism; 3) a new methodology based on the integration of economic, social and cultural history and historical sociolinguistics.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Puttevils Jeroen
- Fellow: Terwisscha van Scheltinga Marly
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project