The female hero in English Renaissance tragedy
By: Lisa Hopkins.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
Subjects: English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism.; Women in literature.; English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism.; English drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism.; Heroines in literature.
Description: "This book focuses on female tragic heroes in English Renaissance drama from c.1610-c.1645, characters who differ from previous tragic heroines because they were not passive victims but active agents. Their sudden appearance can be linked to a specific historical moment and to highly contested debates within early modern England, including changing ideas about the relationship between bodies and souls, men's and women's bodies, marriage and mothering, and law and religion.

Though the vast majority of these characters are not what we would now call heroines but were closer to villainesses, the staging of a constant stream of bad or fallible women did not in fact work to reinforce misogyny, but to prise it open, revealing the grounds on which it was constructed. Consequently these plays did not merely reflected their culture but changed it."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-225) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction 1; title: 1 Women's Bodies: The Changeling and Women Beware Women 11; title: 2 Women as Emblem: The Maid's Tragedy and The Lady's Tragedy 43; title: 3 Women and the Law: The White Devil and The Witch of Edmonton 87; title: 4 Women's Souls: The Duchess of Malfi and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore 118; title: 5 Women and History: The Tragedy of Mariam, The Broken Heart and The Concealed Fancies 148.