Bodies, Speech, and Reproductive Knowledge in Early Modern England

Name: Bodies, Speech, and Reproductive Knowledge in Early Modern England
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

This volume examines early modern representations of women\u2019s reproductive knowledge through new readings of plays, monstrous birth pamphlets, medical treatises, court records, histories, and more, which are often interpreted as depicting female reproductive bodies as passive, silenced objects of male control and critique. Luttfring argues instead that these texts represent women exercising epistemological control over reproduction through the stories they tell about their bodies and the ways they act these stories out, combining speech and physical performance into what Luttfring calls 'bodily narratives.' The power of these bodily narratives extends beyond knowledge of individual bodies to include the ways that women\u2019s stories about reproduction shape the patriarchal identities of fathers, husbands, and kings. In the popular print and theater of early modern England, women\u2019s bodies, women\u2019s speech, and in particular women\u2019s speech about their bodies perform .