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

by Megan Matchinske

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521035217
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/14/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture , #26
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Resistance, Reformation, and the remaining narratives; 2. Framing recusant identity in counter-Reformation England; 3. Legislating morality in the marriage market; 4. Gender formation in English apocalyptic writing; 5. Connections, qualifications, and agendas; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"In this insightful and original study, Matchinske (Univ. of North Carolina) considers the significance of gender identity to the relationship of the individual and the state. Faculty, scholars, and upper-division undergraduate students will doubtless find much of interest in this engaging and challenging approach to the significance of women and women's writing in early modern England." Choice

"Her book makes several important contribution to our dicussions of early modern English culture." Modern Philology vol98/4

From the Publisher