Staging Women and the Soul-Body Dynamic in Early Modern England

Though the gender-coded soul-body dynamic lies at the root of many negative and disempowering depictions of women, Johnson argues that it also functions as an effective tool for redefining gender expectations. 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.