scholarly journals ‘Dancing through the Minefield’: Canon Reinstatement Strategies for Women Authors

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-67
Author(s):  
Reghina Dascăl
Keyword(s):  
Women Authors ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biographical Criticism ◽  
Tragedy Of Mariam

Abstract The paper explores the limiting and detrimental effects of biographical criticism and exceptionalism in the efforts of reinstating women authors into the Renaissance canon, by looking into the literary merits of Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam, The Fair Queen of Jewry and The History of The Life, Reign and Death of Edward II. Whereas the conflation of biography and fiction is a successful recipe for canonization and for the production of feminist icons, it renders the text impotent because of its resulting inability to compete with or to be seen in correlation and interplay with other contemporary texts.

The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II

1959 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
K. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Early Career ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of

During the last twenty or twenty-five years medieval historians have been much interested in the composition of the English episcopate. A number of studies of it have been published on periods ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A further paper might well seem superfluous. My reason for offering one is that most previous writers have concentrated on analysing the professional circles from which the bishops were drawn, and suggesting the influences which their early careers as royal clerks, university masters and students, secular or regular clergy, may have had on their later work as bishops. They have shown comparatively little interest in their social background and provenance, except for those bishops who belonged to magnate families. Some years ago, when working on the political activities of Edward II's bishops, it seemed to me that social origins, family connexions and provenance might in a number of cases have had at least as much influence on a bishop's attitude to politics as his early career. I there fore collected information about the origins and provenance of these bishops. I now think that a rather more careful and complete study of this subject might throw further light not only on the political history of the reign, but on other problems connected with the character and work of the English episcopate. There is a general impression that in England in the later middle ages the bishops' ties with their dioceses were becoming less close, and that they were normally spending less time in diocesan work than their predecessors in the thirteenth century.

From Culturazing Nature to Naturalizing Culture: The Differing Function of Animal Imagery in Defining Bodies from Homer’s Odysseus to Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Begüm Tuğlu
Keyword(s):  
Primary Sources ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Male Voice ◽  
Women Authors ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Animal Imagery ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
History Of

Feminist authors have long been trying to alter the patriarchal structure of the Western society through different aspects. One of these aspects, if not the strongest, is the struggle to overcome centuries long dominance of male authors who have created a masculine history, culture and literature. As recent works of women authors reveal, the strongest possibility of actually achieving an equalitarian society lies beneath the chance of rewriting the history of Western literature. Since the history of Western literature relies on dichotomies that are reminiscences of modernity, the solution to overcome the inequality between the two sexes seems to be to rewrite the primary sources that have influenced the cultural heritage of literature itself. The most dominant dichotomies that shape this literary heritage are represented through the bonds between the concepts of women/man and nature/culture. As one of the most influential epics that depict these dichotomies, Homer's Odysseus reveals how poetry strengthens the authority of the male voice. In order to define the ideal "man", Homer uses a wide scope of animal imagery while forming the identities of male characters. Margaret Atwood, on the other hand, is not contended with Homer's poem in that it never narrates the story from the side of women. As a revisionist mythmaker, Atwood takes the famous story of Odysseus, yet this time presents it from the perspective of Penelope, simultaneously playing on the animal imagery. Within this frame, I intend to explore in this paper how the animal imagery in Homer's most renowned Odysseus functions as a reinforcing tool in the creation of masculine identities and how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad defies this formation of identities with the aim of narrating the story from the unheard side, that of the women who are eminently present yet never heard.

The Bishops and the Deposition of Edward II

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 131-151
Author(s):  
Samuel Lane
Keyword(s):  
Legal History ◽  
Legal Aspect ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Political Society ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The deposition of Edward II was a watershed in the legal history of later medieval England. However, the significance of the church in its accomplishment has remained controversial. This article offers a reassessment by providing a brief narrative of the episcopate's involvement in events; analysing the importance of their contribution, with particular reference to the quasi-legal aspect of proceedings; considering whether this participation reflected their own initiative or was something about which they had no choice; and questioning why so many bishops turned to oppose Edward II. It becomes evident that prelates played a key part in Edward II's downfall, and that they became involved as a consequence of the oppressive treatment which he had meted out to them, to their families and to political society more broadly.

SUMMARIES OF THESES

1938 ◽  
Vol 16 (47) ◽  
pp. 117-120
Keyword(s):  
Political Activities ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
History Of

Abstract The personnel and political activities of the English episcopate during the reign of Edward II. By KathleenEdwards, M.A. The history of Per shore Abbey and its estates. By R. A. L. Smith, M.A.

Beyond Sexual Mimesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kit Heyam
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Edward Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Anal Penetration

This chapter investigates how a consensus developed that Edward II was murdered by anal penetration with a red-hot spit. I question its interpretation by scholars as a self-evidently sexually mimetic, punitive murder method: in fact, the earliest accounts of this murder present it primarily as painful, torturous, and undetectable through outward inspection. Importantly, too, these earliest accounts emerge before the formation of a consensus on whether Edward’s transgressions were sexual, let alone whether they specifically constituted sex with men. This analysis prompts a reassessment of the place of this narrative in the history of queer sexuality, and of the murder scene in Marlowe’s Edward II, while also further illuminating the literary priorities of medieval and early modern chroniclers.

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