The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century

The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century

by Ruth Ahnert
The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century

The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century

by Ruth Ahnert

Paperback(Reprint)

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Overview

Examining works by some of the most famous prisoners from the early modern period including Thomas More, Lady Jane Grey and Thomas Wyatt, Ruth Ahnert presents the first major study of prison literature dating from this era. She argues that the English Reformation established the prison as an influential literary sphere. In the previous centuries we find only isolated examples of prison writings, but the religious and political instability of the Tudor reigns provided the conditions for the practice to thrive. This book shows the wide variety of genres that prisoners wrote, and it explores the subtle tricks they employed in order to appropriate the site of the prison for their own agendas. Ahnert charts the spreading influence of such works beyond the prison cell, tracing the textual communities they constructed, and the ways in which writings were smuggled out of prison and then disseminated through script and print.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781108438797
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 10/26/2017
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 5.98(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Ruth Ahnert is a Lecturer in Early Modern Studies in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London. Her work focuses on the literature and culture of the Tudor period, with a specific emphasis on religious history, prison writing and letter writing. Recent and forthcoming publications examine prison scenes in early modern drama, trial narratives and Protestant letter networks. Dr Ahnert serves on the Council of the Society for Renaissance Studies and is co-editor of the Society's Bulletin.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The sixteenth-century prison; 2. Writing the prison; 3. Prison communities; 4. 'Frendes abrode'; 5. Liberating the text?; Afterword; Bibliography.
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