Reading, Writing and Translating Early Modern Women’s Fiction: Imagined Communities

Guest editors: Line Cottegnies (Sorbonne Université) and Sonia Villegas-López (University of Huelva)

This special issue of Women’s Writing seeks to explore the way in which traditional approaches to the question of the ‘origins of the novel’ in the English context have tended to overlook or downplay women’s contributions to the development of the genre. Translations, and fiction signed (or not) by women, anonymous texts attributed to them, as well as works published under a female pseudonym, have often been considered second-rate and feature only marginally —with only a few exceptions— in canonical histories of the novel. A women-oriented history of the novel genre cannot be written in isolation from what other women novelists wrote across Europe, given the influence that continental women novelists had on the English novel market, and on English women novelists most specifically. Accordingly, we propose to discuss women’s printed fiction during the seventeenth century from a pan-European perspective to help us situate the early days of the novel in their true transnational context. The fictional works translated into English from different European languages, the growing popularity of women’s fiction among readers of both genders, as well as the cross-influences between English and continental novels allegedly authored by women, and their different markets —in particular the role played by women printers and booksellers in the publication and dissemination of fiction— will also be our concern. It is our contention that it is possible to interpret the complex network of female readers, authors and other agents of the novel market as belonging to an active, yet informal community contributing to the development of prose fiction. The aim of this special issue is to assess the relevance of women’s growing contribution to the evolution of the novel genre. We invite proposals for essays that engage with women’s early modern fiction in the seventeenth century in a broad sense, accounting for both transnational liaisons and native literary production in which women are involved as agents of the print trade, authors and translators.

Topics of interest might include, but are not limited to:

• Translating women and women’s translations
• Constructions of women in print
• Anonymity and pseudonymity: questions of attribution and women’s representation
• Cross-Channel and cross-European perspectives
• Women as agents of the book market: printers and booksellers
• Women’s networks: from readers to writers
• Gender and canon formation in histories of the novel
• Continental precursors and models for English women’s fiction
• Fiction and its paratexts: prefaces, dedications and translator’s notes authored by or addressed to women
• The reception and circulation of women’s fiction across national borders 
• Genre, gender and the negotiation of literary legitimacy
• Correspondence, salons and other networks fostering women’s fiction
• Comparative approaches to women’s fiction in England, France, Spain, Italy, and beyond

Please submit abstracts of 250 to 300 words and a short bionote by 15 November 2026 using this submission link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LUYFUfPYfR_JO3iSzS1PicrFb2jUow8MgzTzkoxWK88/edit

Authors could also send their queries to svillegaslopez@gmail.com

Once accepted, full manuscripts will be due for peer review 1 September 2027. Please note that acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee inclusion in the special issue, since manuscripts will undergo anonymized double-blind reviews.