English Renaissance

Simpson 1

Lisa Simpson

Dr. Nick

English Renaissance

19 April 2006

Annotated Bibliography

Brammall, Kathryn M.“Monstrous Metamorphosis:Nature, Morality, and the Rhetoric of Monstrosity in Tudor England.”Sixteenth Century Journal 27.1 (1996): 3-21.MLA International Bibliography.EBSCOhost.University of Northern Colorado, Michener Lib.Web. 30 March 2006.Brammall discusses monstrosity in terms of physical deformity and “misbirths” and what this type of monstrosity means for Tudor England.After a long investigation of birth defects and physical deformities in humans and animals as a sign of God’s displeasure with Englishmen, Brammall looks at how authors used the fear of physical defect to create “a language capable of terrifying sinners into repentance […] with some slight modifications and a shift in emphasis, the language of monstrosity could be applied to the inwardly, rather than [to] the physically deformed” (5-6).The most interesting part of Brammall’s argument is her exemplification of how John Knox “employed the vitriolic rhetoric of monstrosity in a notorious invective against women” (19), specifically the women rulers of the time and their inward monstrosity rather than any physical deformity.Brammall has written extensively in the field of Tudor English Literature, including two full-length texts Medusa and Shakespeare as well as Queen Elizabeth:A Monster in the Making, or a Made/Maid Monster.Her extensive knowledge in this field of study legitimates her argument about monstrosity in Tudor England.Brammall has also been used as an expert by various other scholars, such as Eeichi Hara and Gloria Platzner.Published in 1996 in Sixteenth Century Journal, Brammall’s argument is relatively new to Renaissance studies, making it exciting to look at closely.Brammall’s article will help strengthen the claim I want to make about Alice Arden in Arden of Faversham, specifically about Alice’s connection to a classical Medusa figure, or even looser, a snake, making her less of a murderer and more of a latent goddess figure.

Breen, John M.“The Carnival Body in Arden of Faversham.”Cahiers 45 (1994): 13-20.MLA International Bibliography.EBSCOhost.University of Northern Colorado, Michener Lib.Web. 4 April 2006.In exploring the struggles over land ownership in Arden of Faversham, John Breen also investigates “the play’s carnival impulses and the treatment of bodies as sites on which converging and conflicting social forces impact” (13), suggesting also that Alice is just such a site as are Arden’s lands.Breen argues that Arden of Faversham is a play about displacement, specifically the displacement within the social structure.For example, Breen highlights that Alice is displaced from her noble birth status and that Arden’s sexual drive is displaced.With all of the displacement of people in the play, many characters are marginalized such as Black Will, Shakebag, Greene, and Reede.Breen suggests “Arden’s murder may be interpreted as a momentary success for the marginalized and the dispossessed against the corporate body of the state” (18).Breen intelligently ends his argument explaining that the negotiation of power within a newly developing social system makes itself materially present with the murder of Arden and the violence done to his body.Breen is a noted expert in the literary landscape, specifically literature pertinent to Renaissance and Romanticism in regards to displacement and colonialism.Breen uses much literary theory to support his argument about Alice Arden being socially displaced, including HomiBhaba’s ideas concerning displacement and post-colonialism.With this theoretical connection, Breen’s article could possibly be used to support the idea of woman as colonized, which would reinforce the idea of matrifocal religions being appropriated by a patriarchal systems, which I intend to argue in my longer paper.

Galperin, William H.The Historical Austen.Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.Galperin’s book pursues Austen’s work in a historical context, but he does not only focus on the historicity of Austen’s biographical life; rather, Galperin explores the social and political events during Austen’s life as having an impact on her writing.Galperin writes “[…] in making Austen’s oeuvre a social or political text permeable to elements or influences from which it can no longer beg severance, historical readings invariably make Austen’s writings answerable to a given context […]” (1).Galperin tackles many different historical issues in relation to Austen such as the rise in women writers as well as the rise of the novel.He also investigates the often antithetical representational techniques Austen employs in regards to her being “a chronicler of the everyday” (2).He begins his exploration of the historical Austen with social circumstances, “focusing on the waning status of women in the relatively priviledged class” (7).He then explores “histories that are more strictly literary or conceptual;” in this section Galperin includes Austen’s contemporaries in the Romantic period, focusing specifically on Frances Burney.Finally, he explores cultural histories, for example, “the aesthetic discourses that Austen had at her disposal, which she managed alternately to satisfy and to contest” (7).Galperin’s book incorporates much literary criticism; theoretical discourse from critics such as Roland Barthes and Raymond Williams help Galperin to frame his ideas.This is a great book for a new historical approach to Jane Austen’s works.While Galperin is a reliable source, being well-known and frequently published in Austen studies, this article could only be used for my purposes as a historical thermometer so to speak—taking the temperature of the social climate of the times.As I’m focusing my attention on Arden of Faversham, the historicity found in Galperin won’t be relevant as Austen lived 100 years after the anonymous playwright.