Paola Baseottos important study stresses deaths ubiquity as a concept in Spensers works, always present in intimate relation to life, whether in the recurring, disturbing, figures of deathwishers, characters who seem to belong as much to the dead as the living, or as a perspective, challenging both characters and readers, to reassess their own apprehension of death and the way in which it shapes our lives. Baseottos analyses of Spensers deathwishers and living dead focus our attention on some of the most compelling and distinctive images in Spensers work, illuminating our understanding of...

This book brings the ideas of French feminist Hélène Cixous to bear on a number of Early Modern English texts. The female characters of Mariam from Elizabeth Carys 'The Tragedy of Mariam', Lavinia from William Shakespeares 'Titus Andronicus' as well as John Miltons Eve in 'Paradise Lost' and the poetic voice of Isabella Whitney are investigated through the application of Cixouss theories of figurative decapitation and disgorgement. The author examines the creation of a unique discourse through the blending of what is stereotypically referred to as female text with male discourse, which...