Women and Romance Fiction in the English Renaissance

by Helen Hackett

Overview

This book traces the progress of Renaissance romance from a genre addressed to women as readers to a genre written by women. Exploring this crucial transitional period, Helen Hackett examines the work of a diverse range of writers from Lyly, Rich and Greene to Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare. Her book culminates in an analysis of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania (1621), the first romance written by a woman, and considers the developing representation of female heroism and selfhood, especially the adaptation of saintly roles to secular and even erotic purposes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521031547
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and a note on the text; Introduction; 1. The readership of Renaissance romance; 2. Renaissance romance and modern romance; 3. Novellas of the 1560s and 1570s; 4. Spanish and Portuguese romances; 5. Fictions addressed to women by Lyly, Rich and Greene; 6. The Arcadia: readership and authorship; 7. The Arcadia: heroines; 8. The Faerie Queene; 9. Shakespeare's romance sources; 10. Lady Mary Wroth's Urania; Epilogue: the later seventeenth century; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Provocative and lively.... Like any ambitious study, Hackett's book intriduces as many new questions into the critical arena as it answers, but in doing so, it takes a timely step that ought to invite more interest in this particular aspect of Renaissance romance." Sidney Journal

"Hackett's book represents an important intervention in the study of Renaissance romances precisely because she offers the most comprehensive, clear and succinct deconstruction of such misconceptions, as well as providing useful paradigms for alternative ways of reading the Renaissance romance...Hackett's argument is strong, clear and convincing." The Spenser Review

"Hackett makes her way deftly and perceptively through many texts and many issues, since "women" in her title refers to female characters, to female readers real and imagined, and to female authors." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900.

From the Publisher