curiosities in a cabinet and monsters under the bed: February 2015

Overview of Topic

Hello all, and welcome to my blog. I’ve really enjoyed being able to study Renaissance texts this semester, and I’ve particularly enjoyed being able to focus on gender roles within the texts we have read. The first insight I want to share with you is how, by taking this course and reflecting on the texts, I have begun to feel connected to a time period that I used to feel some disdain towards. I had an impression about the early modern era that it was full of witch hunts and oppressed women and vicious hierarchy. Although it did have all these things, what I’ve come to understand is that I come from this tradition.

Modern feminism and western individualism has come from the people who lived in the early modern era and their ancestors. And if you look closely at the period, indicators are everywhere that presage modern feminism, capitalism, secularism, and individualism. I’ve also found a new literary hero – the Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. My interest in her voice had to do with how self-assertive she was. She died for her self-assertion, but did not suffer defeat. I’ve chosen to primarily explore self-assertion in the early modern period on this blog.

As I mentioned before, I held an incorrect preconception about women of this era – that they accepted the boundaries given to them and had not yet begun to question. This is far from the truth. As pamphlet literature became accessible to all, misogynistic ideas reached more and more people. In response to this, women began to speak out and publish about themselves in a way that had never been done before. But, women still needed to be careful in their outspokenness. The Jacobean period was a conservative one, and King James was not known for being sympathetic to a shift from the traditional role of women. This led to women putting disclaimers and apologies within the texts they published. Furthermore, most of the texts published were in defense of the status quo of women. Most of the pamphlets did not argue for a radical shift I gender role, but rather for a halt to the demonization of women and praise for their role in society.

Women also felt more comfortable publishing their more radical views about gender if they justified in in the common cause of godly endeavor. Invoking divine right to further push the boundaries of what they could do (specifically as jobs or hobbies) was harder for others to condemn. Although, defending women in the name of religion is a tricky thing to do. Religious bias for female inferiority was perhaps the greatest hurdle to overcome for feminism in the Renaissance.

There were many pamphlets published by both men and women which embraced women as the inherently inferior sex, oftentimes citing numerous biblical passages. Despite difficulties in getting their voices heard, women found a middle ground and created room for self-expression amidst a rigid patriarchy by tempering their radicalism with perhaps feigned feminine modesty, and invoking divine right. Self-assertive women of the period were not modern feminists, but as stated previously, they helped build that foundation.

Pamphlets that attacked women had the habit of moving from the specific to the general. That is, one pamphlet might be discussing the story about a woman who murdered her husband, but would quickly move on to the nasty, murderous tendencies of all women. This made it easy to dehumanize the entire female sex. Other literature reversed this tendency. John Webster’s, The Duchess of Malfi, provides an intimate look into the life of a woman killed for going after simple human desires. The audience can’t help but feel sympathy with the woman and question the own rigid systems within their society that kept women from achieving individual identity.

I invite you to explore the texts and websites I have listed here. I urge you to pay special attention to the primary texts – as they’ll allow you to get to know the brave, intelligent women that began the fight for the freedoms women enjoy today.

Works Cited

Anger, Jane. “Jane Anger, her Protection for Women.” c. 1589 in Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1985. 171-88. Print.

Bartels, Emily C. "Strategies Of Submission: Desdemona, The Duchess, And The Assertion Of Desire." Studies In English Literature (Rice) 36.2 (1996): 417. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Felch, Susan M. "Noble Gentlewomen Famous For Their Learning": The London Circle Of Anne Vaughan Lock." Anq 16.2 (2003): 14-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Hannay, Margaret P. "Constructing A City Of Ladies." Shakespeare Studies 25.(1997): 77. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Henderson, Katherine U., and Barbara F. McManus. Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1985. Print.

Swetnam, Joseph. “The Arraignment of Lewd, idle, forward, and unconstant women or the vanity of them, choose you whether.” c. 1615 in Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1985. 189-216. Print.

Taylor, John. “A Juniper Lecture, With the description of all sorts of women, good and bad: From the modest to the maddest, from the most Civil to the scold Rampant, their praise and dispraise compendiously related.” c. 1639 in Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1985. 290-304. Print.

Woods, Susanne. "Shifting Centers And Self Assertions: The Study Of Early Modern Women." Shakespeare Studies 25.(1997): 67.Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Spenser as gynophobic?

p. 787 Therefore she spewd out of her filthy maw
A floud of poyson horrible and blacke,
Full of great lumpes of flesh and gobbets raw,
Which stunck so vildly, that it forst him slacke
His grasping hold, and from her turne him backe:
Her vomit full of bookes and paers was,
With loathly frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke,
And creeping sought way in the weedy gras:
Her filthy parbreake all the place defiled has

p. 879 Her dried dugs, like bladders lacking wind,
Hong downe, and filthy matter from them weld;
Her wrizled skin as rough, as maple rind,
So scabby was, that would have loathed all womankind.

Her neather parts, the shame of all her kind,
My chaster Muse for shame doth blush to write;
But at her rompe she growing had behind
A foxes taile, with dong all fowly dight;
And eke her feete most monstruous were in sight . . .

These descriptions of the female form, and specifically the female reproductive system are incredibly grotesque. I think the strongest imagery in The Faerie Queene comes from Spenser's imaginings of the female form and it's inherent sinful nature.

After doing some brief research on the topic of anti-feminism and renaissance literature, I found a website that helps to break down some of the more popular works from this time period that deal with this issue.

http://www.inforefuge.com/anti-feminism-literature

It specifically discusses Spenser's TFQ. It points to Britomart as being a character that certainly has more agency than Abigail or Duessa, but that also falls short of having true agency, given that Britomart is only so important because she honors that which is more important than her life; her virginity.

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Jew of Malta

What I appreciated most from this work is the moment that Abigail is allowed to become a more complex character.

p. 322 But now experience, purchased with grief, has made me see the difference of things

After Abigail sees who her father truly is, and how she has been made into a pawn for his own profit, she laments her own role, and can now see, "the difference of things." Her new perspective allows her character to grow and deepen, something not common in the Renaissance's portrayal of women through art forms.

In class, we have also discussed the different things the audience may have taken from this story. We have especially focused upon the complexities within Marlowe's language that suggest more complicated readings than some scholars adhere to. For example, when Abigail dies, the catholic priest says, Ay, and a virgin too. That grieves me most. Abigail's culture tells her that more ultimate than her death is her virginity. Is this line merely a reflection of everybody's accepted ideas on womanhood? Or could this line be attempting to highlight the absurdity of Abigail's culture?

Not having a doctoral degree in Renaissance literature, it is difficult to know exactly when I'm imposing my modern sensibilities and meaning making processes on works that belong to another era. I'm interested in doing more research so I can understand the prevailing philosophies and critical thinking capacities of people who lived in Marlowe's time. Following are two books related to this subject available on google scholar that I intend to explore .

Daily Life in Renaissance Italy by Elizabeth and Thomas Cohen

The Education of Women During the Renaissance by Mary Agnes Cannon

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Bibliography crucial to knowing about "self assertive women" in the early modern period

Works Cited

Topic: self-assertive women

This pamphlet establishes a feminist perspective, and a feminist writing style that expresses one woman’s rage about the constraints placed on her because of her gender.

This source examines the constraints and complexities surrounding those wishing to speak up for women’s rights. As the article examines these limits, it identifies the consequential strategizing of self-assertive women to have their voice heard while remaining alive and independent (a difficult task).

Daybell, James. "Scripting A Female Voice: Women's Epistolary Rhetoric In Sixteenth-Century Letters Of Petition." Women's Writing13.1 (2006): 3-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

This article explores the rhetorical strategies employed by women when asserting themselves through petition. By utilizing traditional concepts of the feminine – fragility, duty to the household/family- women effectively asserted their desires.

Felch, Susan M. "Noble Gentlewomen Famous For Their Learning": The London Circle Of Anne Vaughan Lock." Anq 16.2 (2003): 14-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

This article examines the literary and political lives of the highly educated women within Queen Elizabeth I’s inner circle. This community of women assert their intelligence and practical role in society.

Ferguson, Margaret W., A. R. Buck, and Nancy E. Wright. Women, Property, and the Letters of the Law in Early Modern England. Toronto: U of Toronto, 2004. Print.

This book provides a historical timeline of shifting legal rights, specifically property rights, of women throughout the English Renaissance. It demonstrates the positive trajectory of women becoming, in some domains, masters of themselves.

Frith, Valerie. Women & History Voices of Early Modern England. Toronto: Coach House, 1995. Print.

This book examines female figures that pushed boundaries by openly asserting their desires, although it went against cultural norms of the period.

Hannay, Margaret P. "Constructing A City Of Ladies." Shakespeare Studies 25.(1997): 77. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

This article stresses the integral role of community among women in pressing against gender constraints in Renaissance England. The author stresses that in every social class there existed community among women. Whether a political, familial, or religious community, this act of self-assertion and female empowerment directly influenced the pamphlet wars and social thought on this topic.

Henderson, Katherine U., and Barbara F. McManus. Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England, 1540-1640. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1985. Print.

This text compiles both an anthology of primary texts from Renaissance England that attack or defend “the woman question,” and gives extensive cultural context, interpretation, and analysis to these texts. In particular, the landmark importance of women writing about women, and the consequential social upheaval this act both engenders and suggests is embedded in questions that reach beyond gender and into a new social order.

This pamphlet deems women as the infinitely inferior sex, and proceeds to demonize them into worthless, sinful seductresses. It employs sexist humor and examples of the victims of female seduction to help prove its point.

This pamphlet portrays women lecturing other women on their faults. These faults include lustfulness, gluttony, and shrewishness.

Woods, Susanne. "Shifting Centers And Self Assertions: The Study Of Early Modern Women." Shakespeare Studies 25.(1997): 67.Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

This article examines how the religious and ideological flux of the times prompts early modern women to change their involvement from traditionally introspective and indoors to engagement with the practical fabric of society.