Reclaiming the Canon: A Study of Five Women Romantic Writers

This article examines the lives and works of five women Romantic writers: Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Mary Lamb, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Fanny Burney. Despite their significant contributions to literature, these women have been marginalized in the Romantic canon. This study argues that their writings offer valuable insights into the experiences of women during the Romantic era and demonstrate their individuality, creativity, and resistance to patriarchal norms. The Romantic movement in literature has traditionally been associated with male writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron. However, women writers played a crucial role in shaping the movement's themes, styles, and ideologies. This article seeks to reclaim the canon by exploring the lives and works of five women Romantic writers by studying the triple Mary’s namely - Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Mary Lamb, and Dorothy Wordsworth and Fanny Burney.[i]