Elisabet Göransson

Defining a subgenre. Aspects of imitation and intertextuality in the correspondence of learned women in early modern times.

This chapter focuses on different aspects of imitation in the correspondence of thirteen learned European women from the 15th to the early 18th centuries. There is a general idealization of the learned woman manifested in different ways. Reproductive imitations represent the idea of the learned woman. The correspondents often refer to the fame of the lettered learned woman and to her natural talent, which is compared to a well from which streams of water are flowing. The learned women, on the other hand, identify and associate themselves with the Muses. It is seen how imitation works on different levels in the correspondence collections of the thirteen learned women in focus, and how themes and ideas were imitated and occasionally developed. The characteristics of this subgenre that are not qualitatively unique, but the relative frequency of the themes, the phraseology and social interaction between the correspondents, has suggested this definition. Keywords:Correspondence; imitation; learned woman; reproductive imitations; social interaction