Words at Work, Words on the Move: Textual Production of Migrant Women from Early Modern Prague Between Discourses and Practices (1570–1620)

This chapter analyses the textual production of three migrant women whose life trajectories intersected in early seventeenth century Prague: Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner (†1605), Elisabeth Jane Weston (1582–1612) and Elisabeth of Kameneck (†1659). The author strives to bridge the gap between textual studies and socio-economic history by looking at how these women with migration backgrounds used their extensive textual competences to improve their economic situations and to support themselves and others. Building on comparative and relational approaches one can assert that all these three women possessed skills in writing poetry, although to different extent. They engaged in complex hermeneutical work in interpreting texts for others and became published authors. In addition to their textual work, they were all in charge of running households for their relatives in various stages of their lives. While Weston and Kameneck participated in learned networks through letters and poetry writing, Tiktiner worked towards strengthening the cultural cohesion of Jewish networked diasporic communities.