Midwiving Subjects In Shakespeare S England

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Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England

Author : Caroline Bicks
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351917667

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Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England by Caroline Bicks Pdf

At the intersections of early modern literature and history, Shakespeare and Women's Studies, Midwiving Subjects explores how Shakespearean drama and contemporary medical, religious and popular texts figured the midwife as a central producer of the body's cultural markers. In addition to attending most Englishwomen's births and testifying to their in extremis confessions about paternity, the midwife allegedly controlled the size of one's tongue and genitals at birth and was obligated to perform virginity exams, impotence tests and emergency baptisms. The signs of purity and masculinity, paternity and salvation were inherently open to interpretation, yet early modern culture authorized midwives to generate and announce them. Midwiving Subjects, then, challenges recent studies that read the midwife as a woman whose power was limited to a marginal and unruly birthroom community and instead uncovers the midwife's foundational role, not only in the rituals of reproduction, but in the process of cultural production itself. As a result of recent changes in managed healthcare and of increased attention to uncovering histories of women's experiences, midwives - past and present - are currently a subject of great interest. This book will appeal to readers interested in Shakespeare as well as the history of women and medicine.

Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England

Author : Caroline Bicks
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781351917650

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Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England by Caroline Bicks Pdf

At the intersections of early modern literature and history, Shakespeare and Women's Studies, Midwiving Subjects explores how Shakespearean drama and contemporary medical, religious and popular texts figured the midwife as a central producer of the body's cultural markers. In addition to attending most Englishwomen's births and testifying to their in extremis confessions about paternity, the midwife allegedly controlled the size of one's tongue and genitals at birth and was obligated to perform virginity exams, impotence tests and emergency baptisms. The signs of purity and masculinity, paternity and salvation were inherently open to interpretation, yet early modern culture authorized midwives to generate and announce them. Midwiving Subjects, then, challenges recent studies that read the midwife as a woman whose power was limited to a marginal and unruly birthroom community and instead uncovers the midwife's foundational role, not only in the rituals of reproduction, but in the process of cultural production itself. As a result of recent changes in managed healthcare and of increased attention to uncovering histories of women's experiences, midwives - past and present - are currently a subject of great interest. This book will appeal to readers interested in Shakespeare as well as the history of women and medicine.

Twins in Early Modern English Drama and Shakespeare

Author : Daisy Murray
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2017-01-06
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781317199632

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Twins in Early Modern English Drama and Shakespeare by Daisy Murray Pdf

This volume investigates the early modern understanding of twinship through new readings of plays, informed by discussions of twins appearing in such literature as anatomy tracts, midwifery manuals, monstrous birth broadsides, and chapbooks. The book contextualizes such dramatic representations of twinship, investigating contemporary discussions about twins in medical and popular literature and how such dialogues resonate with the twin characters appearing on the early modern stage. Garofalo demonstrates that, in this period, twin births were viewed as biologically aberrant and, because of this classification, authors frequently attempt to explain the phenomenon in ways which call into question the moral and constitutional standing of both the parents and the twins themselves. In line with current critical studies on pregnancy and the female body, discussions of twin births reveal a distrust of the mother and the processes surrounding twin conception; however, a corresponding suspicion of twins also emerges, which monstrous birth pamphlets exemplify. This book analyzes the representation of twins in early modern drama in light of this information, moving from tragedies through to comedies. This progression demonstrates how the dramatic potential inherent in the early modern understanding of twinship is capitalized on by playwrights, as negative ideas about twins can be seen transitioning into tragic and tragicomic depictions of twinship. However, by building toward a positive, comic representation of twins, the work additionally suggests an alternate interpretation of twinship in this period, which appreciates and celebrates twins because of their difference. The volume will be of interest to those studying Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in relation to the History of Emotions, the Body, and the Medical Humanities.

Popular Medicine, Hysterical Disease, and Social Controversy in Shakespeare's England

Author : Kaara L. Peterson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2016-04-22
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781317078227

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Popular Medicine, Hysterical Disease, and Social Controversy in Shakespeare's England by Kaara L. Peterson Pdf

Mining a series of previously uncharted conversations springing up in 16th- and 17th-century popular medicine and culture, this study explores early modern England's significant and sustained interest in the hysterical diseases of women. Kaara L. Peterson assembles a fascinating collection of medical materials to support her discussion of contemporary debates about varieties of uterine pathologies and the implications of these debates for our understanding of drama's representation of hysterica passio cases in particular, among other hysterical maladies. An important aspect of the author's approach is to restore, with all its nuances, the debates created by early modern medical writers over attempts to define the boundaries and resonances of hysterical ailments, which Peterson argues have been largely erased or elided by historicist criticism, including scholarship overly focused on melancholy. One of the main goals of the book is to stress the centrality of gendered concepts of disease for the period and to reveal a whole catalog of early modern literary strategies for representing women's illnesses. Among the medical works discussed are Edward Jorden's central text A Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother (1603) and contemporary plays, including Shakespeare's Pericles, Othello, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale; Webster's The Duchess of Malfi; and Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois.

Walsingham and the English Imagination

Author : Dr Gary Waller
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2013-05-28
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781409478607

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Walsingham and the English Imagination by Dr Gary Waller Pdf

Drawing on history, art history, literary criticism and theory, gender studies, theology and psychoanalysis, this interdisciplinary study analyzes the cultural significance of the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham, medieval England's most significant pilgrimage site devoted to the Virgin Mary, which was revived in the twentieth century, and in 2006 voted Britain's favorite religious site. Covering Walsingham's origins, destruction, and transformations from the Middle Ages to the present, Gary Waller pursues his investigation not through a standard history but by analyzing the "invented traditions" and varied re-creations of Walsingham by the "English imagination"- poems, fiction, songs, ballads, musical compositions and folk legends, solemn devotional writings and hostile satire which Walsingham has inspired, by Protestants, Catholics, and religious skeptics alike. They include, in early modern England, Erasmus, Ralegh, Sidney, and Shakespeare; then, during Walsingham's long "protestantization" from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, ballad revivals, archeological investigations, and writings by Agnes Strickland, Edmund Waterton, and Hopkins; and in the modern period, writers like Eliot, Charles Williams, Robert Lowell, and A.N. Wilson. The concluding chapter uses contemporary feminist theology to view Walsingham not just as a symbol of nostalgia but a place inviting spiritual change through its potential sexual and gender transformation.

Civic and Medical Worlds in Early Modern England

Author : E. Decamp
Publisher : Springer
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2016-06-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781137471567

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Civic and Medical Worlds in Early Modern England by E. Decamp Pdf

Through its rich foray into popular literary culture and medical history, this book investigates representations of regular and irregular medical practice in early modern England. Focusing on the prolific figures of the barber, surgeon and barber-surgeon, the author explores what it meant to the early modern population for a group of practitioners to be associated with both the trade guilds and an emerging professional medical world. The book uncovers the differences and cross-pollinations between barbers and surgeons' practices which play out across the literature: we learn not only about their cultural, civic, medical and occupational histories but also about how we should interpret patterns in language, name choice, performance, materiality, acoustics and semiology in the period. The investigations prompt new readings of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Beaumont, among others. And with chapters delving into early modern representations of medical instruments, hairiness, bloodletting procedures, waxy or infected ears, wart removals and skeletons, readers will find much of the contribution of this book is in its detail, which brings its subject to life.

Women in Shakespeare

Author : Alison Findlay
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 647 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2014-02-27
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781472557513

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Women in Shakespeare by Alison Findlay Pdf

This is a comprehensive reference guide examining the language employed by Shakespeare to represent women in the full range of his poetry and plays. Including over 350 entries, Alison Findlay shows the role of women within Shakespearean drama, their representations on the Shakespearean stage, and their place in Shakespeare's personal and professional lives.

Shakespeare and Domestic Life

Author : Sandra Clark
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2018-06-14
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781472581815

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Shakespeare and Domestic Life by Sandra Clark Pdf

This dictionary explores the language of domestic life found in Shakespeare's work and seeks to demonstrate the meanings he attaches to it through his uses of it in particular contexts. "Domestic life" covers a range of topics: the language of the household, clothing, food, family relationships and duties; household practices, the architecture of the home, and all that conditions and governs the life of the home. The dictionary draws on recent cultural materialist research to provide in-depth definitions of the domestic language and life in Shakespeare's works, creating a richly rewarding and informative reference tool for upper level students and scholars.

Performing Maternity in Early Modern England

Author : Kathryn R. McPherson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2016-12-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351912075

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Performing Maternity in Early Modern England by Kathryn R. McPherson Pdf

Performing Maternity in Early Modern England features essays that share a common concern with exploring maternity's cultural representation, performative aspects and practical consequences in the period from 1540-1690. The essays interrogate how early modern texts depict fertility, conception, delivery and gendered constructions of maternity by analyzing a wealth of historical documents and images in conjunction with dramatic and non-dramatic literary texts. They emphasize that the embodied, repeated and public nature of maternity defines it as inherently performative and ultimately central to the production of gender identity during the early modern period.

Humoral Wombs on the Shakespearean Stage

Author : Amy Kenny
Publisher : Springer
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783030052010

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Humoral Wombs on the Shakespearean Stage by Amy Kenny Pdf

This book explores how the humoral womb was evoked, enacted, and embodied on the Shakespearean stage by considering the intersection of performance studies and humoral theory. Galenic naturalism applied the four humors—yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood—to delineate women as porous, polluting, and susceptible to their environment. This book draws on early modern medical texts to provocatively demonstrate how Shakespeare’s canon offers a unique agency to female characters via humoral discourse of the womb. Chapters discuss early modern medicine’s attempt to theorize and interpret the womb, specifically its role in disease, excretion, and conception, alongside passages of Shakespeare’s plays to offer a fresh reading of (geo)humoral subjectivity. The book shows how Shakespeare subversively challenges contemporary notions of female fluidity by accentuating the significance of the womb as a source of self-defiance and autonomy for female characters across his canon.

The Dynamics of Inheritance on the Shakespearean Stage

Author : Michelle M. Dowd
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2015-05-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781107099777

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The Dynamics of Inheritance on the Shakespearean Stage by Michelle M. Dowd Pdf

The first full-length study of the ways in which Shakespearean drama influenced and expanded notions of inheritance in early modern England.

Pregnant Bodies from Shakespeare to Ford

Author : Katarzyna Burzyńska
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2022-03-24
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9781000551914

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Pregnant Bodies from Shakespeare to Ford by Katarzyna Burzyńska Pdf

This book explores how the pregnant body is portrayed, perceived and enacted in Shakespeare’s and his contemporaries’ drama by means of a phenomenological analysis and a recourse to early modern popular medical discourse on reproduction. Phenomenology of pregnancy is a fairly new and radical body of philosophy that questions the post-Cartesian chasm of an almost autonomous reason and an enclosed and self-sufficient (male) body as foundations of identity. Early modern drama, as is argued, was written and staged at the backdrop of revolutionary changes in medicine and science where old and new theories on the embodied self-clashed. In this world where more and more men were expected to steadily grow isolated from their bodies, the pregnant body constituted an embattled contradiction. Indebted to the theories of embodiment this book offers a meticulous and detailed investigation of a plethora of pregnant characters and their “pregnant embodiment” in the pre-modern works by Shakespeare, Middleton, Webster and Ford. The analysis in each chapter argues for an indivisible link between an intensely embodied experience of pregnancy as enacted in space and identity-shaping processes resulting in a more acute sense of selfhood and agency. Despite seemingly disparate experiences of the selected heroines and the repeated attempts at containment of their “unruly” bodies, the ever transforming and “spatial” pregnant identities remain loci of embodied selfhood and agency. This book provocatively argues that fictional characters’ experience reflects tangible realities of early modern women, while often deflecting the scientific consensus on reproduction in the period.

Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England

Author : Kathryn M. Moncrief,Kathryn Read McPherson
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0754669416

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Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England by Kathryn M. Moncrief,Kathryn Read McPherson Pdf

The essays in this collection question the extent to which education in early modern England, an activity pursued in the home, classroom and the church led to, mirrored and was perhaps transformed by moments of instruction on stage. Contributors examine how educational theories and practices intersect with and construct ideas about gender, class, and national identity and investigate how education was performed and performative, both on stage and off.

Shakespeare and Protestant Poetics

Author : Jason Gleckman
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2019-10-29
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789813295995

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Shakespeare and Protestant Poetics by Jason Gleckman Pdf

This book explores the impact of the sixteenth-century Reformation on the plays of William Shakespeare. Taking three fundamental Protestant concerns of the era – (double) predestination, conversion, and free will – it demonstrates how Protestant theologians, in England and elsewhere, re-imagined these longstanding Christian concepts from a specifically Protestant perspective. Shakespeare utilizes these insights to generate his distinctive view of human nature and the relationship between humans and God. Through in-depth readings of the Shakespeare comedies ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and ‘Twelfth Night’, the romance ‘A Winter’s Tale’, and the tragedies of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’, this book examines the results of almost a century of Protestant thought upon literary art.

Shakespeare and Science

Author : Katherine Walker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-02
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781350044630

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Shakespeare and Science by Katherine Walker Pdf

With the recent turn to science studies and interdisciplinary research in Shakespearean scholarship, Shakespeare and Science: A Dictionary, provides a pedagogical resource for students and scholars. In charting Shakespeare's engagement with natural philosophical discourse, this edition shapes the future of Shakespearean scholarship and pedagogy significantly, appealing to students entering the field and current scholars in interdisciplinary research on the topic alongside the non-professional reader seeking to understand Shakespeare's language and early modern scientific practices. Shakespeare's works respond to early modern culture's rapidly burgeoning interest in how new astronomical theories, understandings of motion and change, and the cataloging of objects, vegetation, and animals in the natural world could provide new knowledge. To cite a famous example, Hamlet's letter to Ophelia plays with the differences between the Ptolemaic and Copernican notions of the earth's movement: “Doubt that the sun doth move” may either be, in the Ptolemaic view, an earnest plea or, in the Copernican system, a purposeful equivocation. The Dictionary contextualizes such moments and scientific terms that Shakespeare employs, creatively and critically, throughout his poetry and drama. The focus is on Shakespeare's multiform uses of language, rendering accessible to students of Shakespeare such terms as “firmament,” “planetary influence,” and “retrograde.”