Violence, Politics, and Gender in Early Modern England (Early Modern Cultural Studies 1500–1700)

"This book engages in an interdisciplinary study of the establishment and entrenchment of gender roles in early modern England. Drawing upon the methods and sources of literary criticism and social history, this edited volume shows how politics at both the elite and plebeian levels of society involved violence that either resulted from or expressed hostility toward the early modern gender system. Contributors take fresh approaches to prominent works by Shakespeare, Middleton, and Behn as well as discuss lesser known texts and events such as the execution of female heretics in Reformation Norwich and the punishment of prostitutes in seventeenth-century London to draw new conclusions about gender in early modern England."--BOOK JACKET Contents......Page 6 Series Editor’s Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Contributors......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Part I: Venerable Patriarchs/Vulnerable Patriarchs......Page 28 1 Apprentice Riots in Early Modern London......Page 30 2 “But She Woulde Not Consent”: Women’s Narratives of Sexual Assault and Compulsion in Early Modern London......Page 54 3 “Writing Rape, Raping Rites”: Shakespeare’s and Middleton’s Lucrece Poems......Page 80 4 Eve as Thanatrix: Sabbatarianism and the Republican Politics of Death and Resurrection in Lucy Hutchinson’s Order and Disorder......Page 104 Part II: Gender and State Violence......Page 136 5 Women, Religious Dissent, and Urban Authority in Early Reformation Norwich......Page 138 6 Power of the County: Sheriffs and Violence in Early Modern England......Page 160 7 Executing the Body Politic: Inscribing State Violence onto Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko......Page 186 8 London’s Bridewell: Violence, Prostitution, and Questions of Evidence......Page 220 9 “I Will Forgive You if the World Will”: Wife Murder and Limits on Patriarchal Violence in London, 1690–1750......Page 236 Afterword......Page 262 B......Page 268 C......Page 269 F......Page 270 H......Page 271 L......Page 272 N......Page 273 R......Page 274 S......Page 275 T......Page 276 Z......Page 277 Edited By Joseph P. Ward ; Introduction By Carole Levin And Joseph Ward ; Afterword By Frances E. Dolan. Includes Bibliographical References.