Reading as a woman in the Transition from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century: Theories and Treatises on Women’s Reading in Spain and Europe

Abstract

 This paper explores the reading practices of eighteenth-century women and the theories and treatises on women’s reading that came to light in the transition between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Starting from the consideration that the debate on the intellectual capacity of women took place with the arrival of the Enlightenment throughout Europe, the article delves into the terms in which this debate took place in the Spanish sphere through the study of the treatises by Juan Francisco Masdéu and Vicente del Seixo. In this respect, it questions the logics of validation of women’s access to literate culture and reflects on the effects that this theorisation had on women writers and readers of the period.