Convents And Novices In Early Modern English Dramatic Works: In Medias Res (late Tudor And Stuart Drama)

__Convents and Novices in Early Modern English Dramatic Works__ attends to the religious, social, and material changes in England during the century following the Reformation, specifically examining how the English came to terms with the meanings of convents and novices even after they disappeared from the physical and social landscape. In five chapters, it traces convents and novices across a range of dramatic texts that refuse easy generic classification: problem plays such as Shakespeare's __Measure for Measure__; Marlowe's comic tragedy __The Jew of Malta__; Margaret Cavendish's closet dramas __The Convent of Pleasure__ and __The Religious__; Aphra Behn's Restoration comedy __The Rover__; and seventeenth-century dialogues that include both a Catholic treatise promoting women's entrance into European convents and a proto-pornographic exposé of such convents. Convents, novices, and problem plays emerge as parallel sites of ambiguity that reflect the social, political, and religious uncertainties England faced after the Reformation. Convents and Novices in Early Modern English Dramatic Works attends to the religious, social, and material changes in England during the century following the Reformation, specifically examining how the English came to terms with the meanings of convents and novices even after they disappeared from the physical and social landscape. In five chapters, it traces convents and novices across a range of dramatic texts that refuse easy generic classification: problem plays such as Shakespeare's Measure for Measure; Marlowe's comic tragedy The Jew of Malta; Margaret Cavendish's closet dramas The Convent of Pleasure and The Religious; Aphra Behn's Restoration comedy The Rover; and seventeenth-century dialogues that include both a Catholic treatise promoting women's entrance into European convents and a proto-pornographic expose of such convents. Convents, novices, and problem plays emerge as parallel sites of ambiguity that reflect the social, political, and religious uncertainties England faced after the Reformation Acknowledgments Contents List of Illustrations Introduction: How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Novice? Chapter 1: “Turn’d to a Nunnery”: Abigail’s Agency in The Jew of Malta Chapter 2: Two Houses Both Alike: Walls and Women in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure Chapter 3: Romancing the Grate in Convent Dialogues Chapter 4: Beyond the Grate: Repurposing Enclosure and Reforming Pleasure in Margaret Cavendish’s The Religious and The Convent of Pleasure Chapter 5: “What Think You of a Nunnery Wall?”: Lifelines in Aphra Behn’s The Rover Bibliography Index