Women and Romance Fiction in the English Renaissance - Softcover

Hackett, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521031540 ISBN 13: 9780521031547

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

"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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0521031540
• ISBN 13: 9780521031547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244