{"id":10843,"date":"2020-02-17T13:45:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T18:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/?p=10843"},"modified":"2025-03-18T18:11:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T23:11:00","slug":"writing-with-others-renaissance-coteries-the-writing-center-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/writing-with-others-renaissance-coteries-the-writing-center-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing with Others: Renaissance Coteries, the Writing Center, and Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\n
\"Emily<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

By Emily Loney<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sir Philip Sidney sent the manuscript of his prose romance, the Arcadia,<\/em> to his sister, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, sometime in the 1580s, he sent a letter along as well. Apologizing for the imperfections of his tale, Sidney tells Pembroke in his letter that the Arcadia <\/em>was written for her, and he reminds her that much of it was even written in her presence.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidney writes\nthat he\u2019s inclined to sweep away his manuscript \u201clike the spider\u2019s web\u201d or to\n\u201ccast [it] out in some desert of forgetfulness,\u201d but, he writes, he\u2019s decided\nto send his story along to Pembroke anyway, because <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

you desired me to do it, and your desire to my heart is an absolute commandment. Now it is done only for you, only to you: if you keep it to yourself or to such friends who will weigh errors in the balance of goodwill, I hope, for the father\u2019s sake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of… Your dear self can best witness the manner, being done in loose sheets of paper, most of it in your presence; the rest by sheets sent unto you as fast as they were done… Read it, then, at your idle times, and the follies your good judgement will find in it blame not, but laugh at.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As he imagines\nhis adventure story being read by Pembroke and perhaps even passed around to\ntheir friends, Sidney\u2019s self-effacing language falls somewhere between earnest\nvulnerability and polite humility. What\u2019s striking about this passage is that,\nalthough it was printed as an introduction to the Arcadia<\/em>, when the Arcadia\n<\/em>was finally published, it tells a story about a different sort of textual\ncirculation than print publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sidney says that\nhe wrote the Arcadia<\/em> for Pembroke and that she\u2019s already seen it,\nbecause he passed the manuscript pages to her as he finished writing them. He\npresents his writing project as a marker of his relationship with his sister,\nand, as he imagines his manuscript circulating more widely, he associates the\nreading experience with a community of friends, goodwill, and good humor. When\nthe text isn\u2019t published widely but is instead circulated amongst friends and\nloved ones, writing becomes an expression of community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Sidney is\ndescribing here is a sort of literary coterie, a form of writerly community\nthat was relatively common the early modern period. Coteries valued\ncollaboration and relationship as they helped writers to craft their literary\nidentities. Writing Centers aren\u2019t Renaissance coteries: where coteries were\nexclusive and privileged, Writing Centers are built to be democratic and\ninclusive, striving to welcome more and more student-writers through our doors.\nBut circulating a text in a literary coterie\u2014sharing something with people you\ntrust, hoping for collaboration or critique, and using your writing to foster\ncommunity with other writers and readers\u2014echoes some of the ways that we talk\nabout the work of a Writing Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Text:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Renaissance\ncoterie can perhaps offer a historical perspective on the importance of prioritizing\ncommunity-building in our own writing processes and pedagogies. Philip Sidney\u2019s\nletter to the Countess of Pembroke prompts me to ask: how can we actively\nprioritize community-building as part of the writing process in our Writing\nCenters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An

Sir Philip Sidney. <\/em>[Arcadia] The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coteries <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sidney\u2019s letter to Pembroke opens a window into a writing network common in early modern England: that of the literary coterie. The term \u201ccoterie\u201d is a bit complicated, because it was only applied to early modern writers retroactively\u2014Sidney wouldn\u2019t have said he was part of a coterie. But the term allows us to describe \u201cclosed circles of readers and writers\u201d and the relationships that they developed between themselves in the early modern period, as well as gesturing towards more \u201cporous\u201d scribal communities.2<\/a><\/sup> Whereas scribal communities could represent relatively wide networks of correspondence, coteries are more discrete. Betty A. Schellenberg defines the literary coterie as<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

a physically realized entity, a relatively cohesive social group whose membership may undergo shifts over time, but which is held together as a continuous identifiable whole by some combination of kinship, friendship, clientage, and at least occasional geographic proximity. Most importantly, a literary coterie\u2019s cohesiveness is based on, and is maintained to a significant degree by, strong shared literary interests, expressed in the scribal exchange of original compositions, reading materials, and critical views.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Coteries were held together by the social relationships that formed around reading, collaborating on, and critiquing each other\u2019s work. As Paul Trolander and Zeynep Tenger write, \u201cCoterie members were likely to style benefits received from their comrades as expressions of the social bonds that linked them to the group; therefore, they were likely to interpret such benefits as obligations that necessitated some return.\u201d4<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers in a\ncoterie environment shaped their own literary identities around their social\nrelationships with other members of their network: they were collaborators,\ncritics, friends, and readers. These writers built communities through shared\nwork\u2014and their communities encouraged them to share more and more work in turn.\nCoteries provided a small audience of like-minded creators, and they fostered\nrelationships between a group of writers and readers working together, sharing\nwork outside of the print market. Mutual sharing fostered literary production\nand supported writers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An

Sir Philip Sidney. <\/em>[Arcadia] The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Building\nCommunity in the Writing Center<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coteries, of\ncourse, are not Writing Centers. But considering the way that coterie writers\nused writing to build community\u2014and then used community to support their\nwriting\u2014helps show the significance of building communities when we work to\nsupport writers in the Writing Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our Writing Center appointments, we often work to build rapport and connection, because that sort of sharing can create the trust that helps student writers to be vulnerable sharing their work and to engage in serious conversation about their writing. Tori Thompson Peters writes<\/a> that her experience in the UW-Madison Writing Center has encouraged her to \u201cbecome more willing to engage in [friendly] talk and to value it as an important part of the writing process, rather than resist it as a \u2018waste of time.\u2019\u201d She writes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Scholars both inside and outside of writing center studies show that friendly talk can build trust<\/a> and comfort when students are feeling wary about sharing their writing. Linda Park points out that when Western professionals refuse to engage in conversation, they miss opportunities for building trust, deepening understanding, and connecting with the people they interact with. In fact, jumping into \u201cwork talk\u201d can create more confusion or reluctance. 5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We also work to build community in our Writing Mentorships<\/a> when we build semester-long relationships with the same students to meet with us from week to week. When I have developed these ongoing relationships with student-writers, I\u2019m always excited to hear about their conference acceptances\u2014or their cats\u2014in the first few minutes of our appointments. Meeting the same student from week to week fosters a deeper sense of community, and (anecdotally) it seems to help students working on long-term projects to feel a sense of accountability to get things done because they already know their Writing Center tutor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Writing Center community isn\u2019t just about the relationship between tutor and student writer. Writing Centers can do important work when we support community-building between student writers who can find connection with each other through their shared experience working on long-term projects like dissertations, senior theses, and articles\u2014or just their shared experiences at the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students

Students meet for a senior-thesis writing group coordinated by the UW-Madison Writing Center. (Photo by Bryce Richter \/ UW-Madison)<\/em><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week the UW-Madison Writing Center started up our\nWriting Groups for the semester. Our Writing Groups offer students the\nopportunity to gather together weekly with other writers to get work done, but\nalso to share their experiences writing. We have many Writing Groups that meet\nweekly over the course of the semester\u2014both for undergraduate and for graduate\nstudents\u2014as well as a \u201cdrop-in\u201d writing group for graduate students on Fridays\nwho want a space to write with others but don\u2019t want to commit to showing up\nevery week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Writing groups give student-writers time to get writing done, but also time to form relationships around their shared experiences of writing. As Chris Earle, Elisabeth Miller, and former Writing Center director Brad Hughes write<\/a>, writing groups<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

open each week with a focused goal-setting activity and small- or large-group discussion about the writing process, about challenges they\u2019re facing in their projects, or about whatever else writing related is on people\u2019s minds. At the close of each session, the facilitator brings the group back together for the last few minutes to share progress and to set goals for the week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Paraphrasing a graduate student writer, Earle, Miller, and Hughes write, \u201cthere is something magical about writing with or alongside others that, in addition to the supported time, keeps graduate writers coming back week after week, and, often, semester after semester.\u201d6<\/a><\/sup> That \u201csomething magical\u201d is, I think, the same energy that works in the Renaissance coterie: writers build community through the shared experience of writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Text:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next Steps<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Building community supports writers and makes the Writing\nCenter a more welcoming space for our students. Especially as we work to\nactively make the Writing Center a more inclusive space, I think it\u2019s useful to\nthink about the coterie model of an interdependent community of writers,\nlearning from each other and sharing in all the experiences of writing\u2014the\nexhilarations, frustrations, slow progressions, celebrations, and critiques.\nWriting Centers shouldn\u2019t be Renaissance coteries, which were, by definition,\nexclusive and insular. But, for me, the coterie model of writerly relationship\nhelps me think about both the importance of building connections in the\ntutor-writer dynamic and the importance of fostering connections between\nwriters, as part of the work of the Writing Center. Learning from each other\nand from the communities of writers at the Writing Center, we can all continue\nlearning how we can best support writerly communities across the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily\nL. Loney is a Ph.D. Candidate in English literary studies at the University of\nWisconsin-Madison, where she also coordinates Outreach for the UW-Madison\nWriting Center. Her research focuses on early modern revision, gender and\nsexuality studies, and the writing practices of the Sidney Circle.<\/em><\/p>\n

  1. Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke\u2019s Arcadia<\/span>, ed. Maurice Evans (Penguin Books, 1977), 57. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Steven W. May and Heather Wolfe, \u201cManuscripts in Tudor England,\u201d in A Companion to Tudor Literature<\/span>, ed. Kent Cartwright (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 132. See also Betty A. Schellenberg, Literary Coteries and the Making of Modern Print Culture: 1740\u20131790<\/span> (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 9. May and Wolfe note that Sidney would have thought of his own writerly community as a coterie, although it\u2019s actually a scribal network. See also Mary Ellen Lamb\u2019s discussion of the complications of the word \u201ccoterie\u201d in \u201cLiterary Coteries of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke,\u201d in Re-evaluating the Literary Coterie, 1580\u20131830: From Sidney to Blackwoods<\/span>, ed. Will Bowers and Hannah Leah Crumm\u00e9 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 29. I use the term \u201ccoterie\u201d for ease of reference, since that closed network is the one that Sidney describes in his letter, whether or not it is precisely what happened in the material circulation of his manuscripts. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Schellenberg, Literary Coteries<\/span>, 9. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Paul Trolander and Zeynep Tenger, Sociable Criticism in England, 1625\u20131725<\/span> (University of Delaware Press, 2007), 18. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Tori Thompson Peters, \u201cLet\u2019s Chat: Considering \u2018Friendly Talk\u2019 in the Writing Center,\u201d Another Word: From the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison<\/span>, October 9, 2017. https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/lets-chat-considering-friendly-talk-in-the-writing-center\/ [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. Chris Earle, Elisabeth Miller, and Bradley Hughes, \u201c\u2018Something Magical in Meeting with a Group of Like-Minded People\u2019: Graduate Writing Groups in the Writing Center,\u201d Another Word: From the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,<\/span> April 25, 2016, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/something-magical-in-meeting-with-a-group-of-like-minded-people-graduate-writing-groups-in-the-writing-center\/<\/a> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Emily Loney\u2014When Sir Philip Sidney sent the manuscript of his prose romance, the Arcadia, to his sister, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, sometime in the 1580s, he sent a letter along as well. Apologizing for the imperfections of his tale, Sidney tells Pembroke in his letter that the Arcadia was written for her, and he reminds her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":10867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,60,161],"tags":[50,162,163,164,85,123],"class_list":["post-10843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaborative-learning","category-writing-center-theory","category-writing-groups","tag-community-of-writers","tag-literary-studies","tag-philip-sidney","tag-renaissance-coteries","tag-writing-center-pedagogy","tag-writing-groups"],"yoast_head":"\nWriting with Others: Renaissance Coteries, the Writing Center, and Community - Another Word<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/writing-with-others-renaissance-coteries-the-writing-center-and-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writing with Others: Renaissance Coteries, the Writing Center, and Community - Another Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Emily Loney\u2014When Sir Philip Sidney sent the manuscript of his prose romance, the Arcadia, to his sister, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, sometime in the 1580s, he sent a letter along as well. 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