Lactilla Tends Her Fav'rite Cow

Ecocritical Readings of Animals and Women in Eighteenth-Century British Labouring-Class Women's Poetry

Anne Milne

2008
176 pages
ISBN 9781611482935
Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture

This volume brings together issues of gender, class, and species through a study of a selection of poetry by five eighteenth-century British laboring-class women poets: Mary Collier, Mary Leapor, Elizabeth Hands, Ann Yearsley, and Janet Little. Extending the feminist concept of "interlocking oppressions" to include a consideration of the link between women and animals, Lactilla Tends her Fav'rite Cow benefits from the foundations set by earlier studies of laboring-class writers even as it extends their conclusions through the use of an explicitly ecocritical perspective. As well, the book's specific focus on the period between 1740 and 1800 contributes to furthering the nascent ecocritical practice in eighteenth-century studies.

Order here

Review

"... Milne's study is essential reading for specialists interested in what a historically sensitive ecocriticism can bring to our understanding of these labouring-class women poets and their work." --William J. Christmas, San Francisco State University (Eighteenth Century Fiction, 21.4, Summer 2009)

About the author:

Anne Milne is an Assistant Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.

Distributed by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group