Questions Before Writing

Although I am not going to focus on my thesis in particular, my blog still will concentrate on how to approach my subject as we begin to delve into the writing process. I have now narrowed my primary source emphasis on four memoirs in particular- three of which are autobiographical narratives situated in the 1690s. The commonality between these three sources is that three women were recalling their life stories near the end of their lives, yet still within the first fifty years of the Quaker Movement. The fourth source, unlike the others, was published in the 1660s at the relative beginning of the movement, comprising two women’s experiences of Inquisition. Granted this difference, I still find that all four sources share common strands of experience, as well as demonstrate culminating perceptions of their power and gender. Therefore, my question isn’t necessarily – can the sources form a cohesive set of evidence? - but more so a question of how can I place these women in an overall study of Quaker Women?

The five women I’m examining were not Margaret Fell, the only incredibly infamous female Quaker leader to emerge from the century, yet the sources do inform of how average Quaker women travelled, practiced their spirituality, persisted, and ultimately, garnered some degree of power. As contributors to a female body of writings from 1650-1700, I give credit to the accounts as informants of a larger picture. On the other hand, the extent to which I can draw some universalities of experience is limited. Mostly, I would like to find a balance between setting out these compelling accounts and supporting a broader thesis. Any ideas for maintaining this as I go into the writing process?