 | The Politics of Female Alliance in Early Modern England Subjects: English literature -- Early modern 1500–1700 -- History and criticism; Women in literature. Female friendship in literature. Women and literature -- England; 2018 Best Collaborative Project from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women Grouped into three sections--domestic, court, and kinship alliances--these essays investigate historical documents, drama, and poetry, insisting that female alliances, much like male friendship discourse, had political meaning in early modern England. Offering new perspectives on female authors such as the Cavendish sisters, Anne Clifford, Aemilia Lanyer, and Katherine Philips, as well as on male-authored texts such as Romeo and Juliet , The Winter's Tale , Swetnam the Woman-Hater , and The Maid's Tragedy , the essays bring both familiar and unfamiliar texts into conversation about the political potential of female alliances. Some contributors are skeptical about allied women's political power, while others suggest that such female communities had considerable potential to contain, maintain, or subvert political hierarchies. A wide variety of approaches to the political are represented in the volume and the scope will make it appealing to a broad audience. Christina Luckyj is a professor of English, gender, and women's studies at Dalhousie University. She is the author of "A Moving Rhetoricke": Gender and Silence in Early Modern England and The Duchess of Malfi: A Critical Guide . Niamh J. O'Leary is an associate professor of English at Xavier University. |
