Women and Romance Fiction in the English Renaissance

ISBN-13: 9780521641456 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 244 str.

Helen Hackett (University College London)

Opis

This book traces the progress of Renaissance romance from a genre addressed to women as readers to a genre written by women. Exploring this crucial transitional period, Helen Hackett examines the work of a diverse range of writers from Lyly, Rich and Greene to Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare. Her book culminates in an analysis of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania (1621), the first romance written by a woman, and considers the developing representation of female heroism and selfhood, especially the adaptation of saintly roles to secular and even erotic purposes.

Recenzje

'Hackett's scholarship in this volume is illuminating and rewards close reading as it consolidates critical interest in many unfairly neglected texts in early modern studies.' Shakespeare Yearbook

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and a note on the text; Introduction; 1. The readership of Renaissance romance; 2. Renaissance romance and modern romance; 3. Novellas of the 1560s and 1570s; 4. Spanish and Portuguese romances; 5. Fictions addressed to women by Lyly, Rich and Greene; 6. The Arcadia: readership and authorship; 7. The Arcadia: heroines; 8. The Faerie Queene; 9. Shakespeare's romance sources; 10. Lady Mary Wroth's Urania; Epilogue: the later seventeenth century; Notes; Bibliography; Index.