Staging Slander and Gender in Early Modern EnglandThis book examines slander in early modern England as a gendered and theatrical cultural practice. Habermann explores oral defamation – the negative fashioning of others – in language and rhetoric, social interaction and the law, literature and authorship as well as religion, subjectivity and the body. Since the 'slander triangle', which requires an accuser, an audience and a victim, is inherently theatrical, the dramatic representation of slander forms a central concern of the study. Focusing on sexual slander in particular, Habermann shows how femininity was fashioned between praise and slander, and how the 'slandered heroine' emerged as an influential fantasy of femininity – a linguistic, legal and social mechanism that lends itself to masculine self-fashioning through the display of eloquence but that is also subject to resignification by female authors. As theatre and the law mutually influence each other, drama offers a poetic inquiry into the gendered subject and the social life of the community. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... Chapter 1 argues that the metaphorical nature of language provides the linguistic basis for defamation . This is due to the nature of the relation between words and things and to the ubiquity of " translated speech " in the form of ...
... Chapter 1 argues that the metaphorical nature of language provides the linguistic basis for defamation . This is due to the nature of the relation between words and things and to the ubiquity of " translated speech " in the form of ...
Page 8
... Chapter 6 examines treatises on defamation , showing that such treatises , which purported to discuss the subject in a general way , were always prompted by their authors ' individual grievances . This chapter also looks at the imagery ...
... Chapter 6 examines treatises on defamation , showing that such treatises , which purported to discuss the subject in a general way , were always prompted by their authors ' individual grievances . This chapter also looks at the imagery ...
Page 27
... chapter , I approached the topic of slander through an analysis of early modern notions of the referentiality of language and its connection to the power of eloquence . It has become clear that , until the early seventeenth century ...
... chapter , I approached the topic of slander through an analysis of early modern notions of the referentiality of language and its connection to the power of eloquence . It has become clear that , until the early seventeenth century ...
Contents
GRAD | 1 |
The Rhetoric of Slander | 27 |
The Law of Slander | 43 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
accused action Amarillis argues becomes body Cary Cary's century chapter character church courts common law context culture defamation Desdemona detraction Devil's Law discourse of slander discussion doth Early Modern England early modern period ecclesiastical elocutio eloquence English Renaissance equity female femininity figure forensic gender Guarini hath haue heart Herod honour humanist Hutson Iago Iago's Ibid Il Pastor Fido illocutionary imagery inns of court John John Webster jurisdiction Lady language Lingua linguistic literary Literature London Lord male Mary Sidney Mary Sidney Herbert means metaphor Mirtillo misogyny Musella negotiation Othello Oxford Peacham persuasion play political praise and slander Psalms punishment Rastell rhetoric Romeo Routledge seen sense sexual slander Shakespeare shee slandered heroine social speak speech act spirit Star Chamber Stephen Greenblatt theatre theatrical thee Thomas thou tion tongue Tragedy of Mariam tragicomedy translation treatise Webster Wheathill wife woman women writing Wroth