The Golden Thorn: Complaint and Consent in Early Modern England

Examining different approaches to early modern lyric, The Golden Thorn argues that sadomasochistic bonds can be understood as dialogic despite asymmetries of power, and against the typical scholarly understanding of poetry as single-voiced or monologic. In these poetic dialogues, Scozzaro argues that even solo speakers can create and anticipate meaningful interlocutors in the search for consent, even in the unequal context of complaint.

Scozzaro responds to long-standing feminist definitions...