Writing, Gender and State in Early Modern England: Identity Formation and the Female Subject

by Megan Matchinske

• ISBN13: 9780521035217
• ISBN10: 052103521X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The period from the Reformation to the English Civil War saw an evolving understanding of social identity in England. This book uses four illuminating case studies to chart a shift from mid-sixteenth-century notions of an individually generated, spiritually motivated self, to civil war perceptions of the self as a site of civil control. Each centers on the work of an early modern woman writer in the act of self-definition and authorization, illustrating the evolving relationships between public and private selves and the increasing role of gender in determining different identities for men and women.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Resistance, Reformation, and the remaining narratives

Framing recusant identity in counter-Reformation England

Legislating morality in the marriage market

Gender formation in English apocalyptic writing

Connections, qualifications, and agendas

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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