Staging Women and the Soul-Body Dynamic in Early Modern England
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A01=Sarah E. Johnson
Antonio's Wife
Antonio’s Wife
Author_Sarah E. Johnson
bartholomew
Bartholomew Fair
Category=DSB
Category=DSG
Category=JBSF1
Danse Macabre
Early Modern
early modern drama
Early Modern England
Early Modern English Women
English Renaissance literature
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fair
female
Female Masquers
feminist theatre analysis
Fletcher's Play
Fletcher’s Play
gender theory
gendered power dynamics in plays
ghost
Gloriana's Skull
Gloriana’s Skull
hero
Lady's Body
Lady's Ghost
Lady's Spirit
Lady's Tragedy
ladys
Lady’s Body
Lady’s Ghost
Lady’s Spirit
Lady’s Tragedy
Maiden's Tragedy
Maiden’s Tragedy
Mistress Overdo
Nosce Teipsum
patriarchal discourse
Performative Object
Puppet Dionysius
relationship
Renaissance Stage
Revenger's Tragedy
revengers
Revenger’s Tragedy
Soul Body Divide
soul-body relationship
tamer
Tamer Tamed
Tethys Festival
tragedy
Twelve Goddesses
Product details
- ISBN 9781472411228
- Weight: 521g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Feb 2014
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Though the gender-coded soul-body dynamic lies at the root of many negative and disempowering depictions of women, Sarah Johnson here argues that it also functions as an effective tool for redefining gender expectations. Building on past criticism that has concentrated on the debilitating cultural association of women with the body, she investigates dramatic uses of the soul-body dynamic that challenge the patriarchal subordination of women. Focusing on two tragedies, two comedies, and a small selection of masques, from approximately 1592-1614, Johnson develops a case for the importance of drama to scholarly considerations of the soul-body dynamic, which habitually turn to devotional works, sermons, and philosophical and religious treatises to elucidate this relationship. Johnson structures her discussion around four theatrical relationships, each of which is a gendered relationship analogous to the central soul-body dynamic: puppeteer and puppet, tamer and tamed, ghost and haunted, and observer and spectacle. Through its thorough and nuanced readings, this study redefines one of the period’s most pervasive analogies for conceptualizing women and their relations to men as more complex and shifting than criticism has previously assumed. It also opens a new interpretive framework for reading representations of women, adding to the ongoing feminist re-evaluation of the kinds of power women might actually wield despite the patriarchal strictures of their culture.
Sarah E. Johnson recently completed a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship at Queen’s University. She is currently teaching as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queen’s University and The Royal Military College of Canada and is at work on research exploring pride and gender in early modern literature.
