Imaginary Betrayals: Subjectivity and the Discourses of Treason in Early Modern England
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In 1352 King Edward III had expanded the legal definition of treason to include the act of imagining the death of the king, opening up the category of "constructive" treason, in which even a subject's thoughts might become the basis for prosecution. By the sixteenth century, treason was perceived as an increasingly serious threat and policed with a new urgency. Referring to the extensive early modern literature on the subject of treason, Imaginary Betrayals reveals how and to what extent ideas of proof and grounds for conviction were subject to prosecutorial construction during the Tudor period. Karen Cunningham looks at contemporary records of three prominent cases in order to demonstrate the degree to which the imagination was used to prove treason: the 1542 attainder of Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, charged with having had sexual relations with two men before her marriage; the 1586 case of Anthony Babington and twelve confederates, accused of plotting with the Spanish to invade England and assassinate Elizabeth; and the prosecution in the same year of Mary, Queen of Scots, indicted for conspiring with Babington to engineer her own accession to the throne.
Linking the inventiveness of the accusations and decisions in these cases to the production of contemporary playtexts by Udall, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Kyd, Imaginary Betrayals demonstrates how the emerging, flexible discourses of treason participate in defining both individual subjectivity and the legitimate Tudor state. Concerned with competing representations of self and nationhood, Imaginary Betrayals explores the implications of legal and literary representations in which female sexuality, male friendship, or private letters are converted into the signs of treacherous imaginations.
Related to Imaginary Betrayals
Related ebooks
Imaginary Betrayals: Subjectivity and the Discourses of Treason in Early Modern England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiding the Black Ram: Law, Literature, and Gender Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCultures of Witnessing: Law and the York Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWayward Contracts: The Crisis of Political Obligation in England, 1640-1674 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomantics at War: Glory and Guilt in the Age of Terrorism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Law as Culture: An Invitation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden and the Brazen World: Papers in Literature and History, 1650-1800 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDouble Vision: Moral Philosophy and Shakespearean Drama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice in a New World: Negotiating Legal Intelligibility in British, Iberian, and Indigenous America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaw and the Order of Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Protest Becomes Crime: Politics and Law in Liberal Democracies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoral Imagination: Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Adam Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Censorship and Cultural Sensibility: The Regulation of Language in Tudor-Stuart England Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Shakespeare and the Law: A Conversation Among Disciplines and Professions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGothic Subjects: The Transformation of Individualism in American Fiction, 179-1861 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565–1830 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThat Tyrant, Persuasion: How Rhetoric Shaped the Roman World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350-1870 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnthropology and Law: A Critical Introduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Veiled Speech: Self-Censorship from Aristophanes to Hobbes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Athenian Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHomer's Iliad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Legal Epic: "Paradise Lost" and the Early Modern Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Monster with a Thousand Hands: The Discursive Spectator in Early Modern England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iliad of Homer, Translated by Alexander Pope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsActs of Hope: Creating Authority in Literature, Law, and Politics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Knowing Books: The Consciousness of Mediation in Eighteenth-Century Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Criticism For You
The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/512 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secret History: by Donna Tartt | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMan's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verity: by Colleen Hoover | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Circe: by Madeline Miller | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Thorns and Roses: A Novel by Sarah J. Maas | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Feminist: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moby Dick (Complete Unabridged Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SUMMARY Of The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.by Brené Brown | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: by Gail Honeyman | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Between the World and Me: by Ta-Nehisi Coates | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Imaginary Betrayals
0 ratings0 reviews