In Spain, the two hundred years that elapsed between the beginning of the early modern period and the final years of the Habsburg Empire saw a profusion of works written by women. Whether secular or religious, noble or middle class, early modern Spanish women actively composed creative works such as poetry, prose narratives, and plays. The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers covers the broad array of different kinds of writings - literary as well as extra-literary - that these women wrote, taking into consideration their subject positions and the cultural and historical contexts that influenced and were influenced by them. Beyond merely recognizing the individual women authors who had influence in literary, religious, and intellectual circles, this Research Companion investigates their participation in these circles through their writings, as well as the ways in which their texts informed Spain's cultural production during the early modern period. In order to contextualize women's writings across the historical and cultural spectrum of early modern Spain, the Research Companion is divided into six sections of general thematic interest: Women's Worlds; Conventual Spaces; Secular Literature; Women in the Public Sphere; Private Circles; Women Travelers. Each section is subdivided into chapters that focus on specific issues or topics.

In Spain, the two hundred years that elapsed between the beginning of the early modern period and the final years of the Habsburg Empire saw a profusion of works written by women. Whether secular or religious, noble or middle class, early modern Spanish women actively composed creative works such as poetry, prose narratives, and plays. The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers covers the broad array of different kinds of writings - literary as well as extra-literary - that these women wrote, taking into consideration their subject positions and the cultural and historical contexts that influenced and were influenced by them. Beyond merely recognizing the individual women authors who had influence in literary, religious, and intellectual circles, this Research Companion investigates their participation in these circles through their writings, as well as the ways in which their texts informed Spain's cultural production during the early modern period. In order to contextualize women's writings across the historical and cultural spectrum of early modern Spain, the Research Companion is divided into six sections of general thematic interest: Women's Worlds; Conventual Spaces; Secular Literature; Women in the Public Sphere; Private Circles; Women Travelers. Each section is subdivided into chapters that focus on specific issues or topics.

The career of Arthur L-F. Askins is celebreated in a panorama of current scholarship on the Iberian peninsula during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This volume is dedicated to Professor Arthur L-F. Askins, whose scholarship on Spanish and Portuguese literatures of the Medieval and Renaissance periods is esteemed by colleagues around the world. Many North American and European scholars have contributed with essays of an exceptionally high scholarly quality, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, to this wide-ranging tribute, dealing with Spanish and Portuguese literary culture from the end of the fourteenth to the late sixteenth century. Some tackle problems concerning manuscripts, texts, and books; other essays are literary, theoretical, and interpretive in nature; topics range from medieval and Renaissance epic and love poetry to spiritual, travel and chivalric literature, as well as balladry and pliegos sueltos. CONTRIBUTORS: Gemma Avenoza, Nieves Baranda, Vicenc Beltran, Alberto Blecua, Pedro M. Catedra, Manuel da Costa Fontes, Alan Deyermond, Aida Fernanda Dias, Dru Dougherty, Thomas F. Earle, Charles B. Faulhaber, Maria del Mar Fernandez Vega, Helder Godinho, Angel Gomez Moreno, Thomas R. Hart, Ana Hatherly, David Hook, Victor Infantes, Paul Lewis-Smith, Beatriz Mariscal Hay, Aires A. Nascimento, Joao David Pinto-Correia, Dorothy Sherman Severin, Harvey L. Sharrer. Martha E. Schaffer is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of San Francisco; Antonio CortijoOcana is Professor of Spanish at the University of California.