Dramatic and documentary narratives about aggressive and
garrulous women often cast such women as reckless and ultimately
unsuccessful usurpers of cultural authority. Contending narratives,
however, sometimes within the same texts, point to the effective
subversion and undoing of the normative restrictions of social and
gender hierarchies. "Words Like Daggers" explores the scolding
invectives, malevolent curses, and ecstatic prophesies of early
modern women as attested to in legal documents, letters,
self-narratives, popular pamphlets, ballads, and dramas of the era.
Examining the framing and performance of violent female speech
between the 1590s and the 1660s, Kirilka Stavreva dismantles the
myth of the silent and obedient women who allegedly populated early
modern England.
Blending gender theory with detailed historical analysis, "Words
Like Daggers" asserts the power of women's language--the power to
subvert binaries and destabilize social hierarchies, particularly
those of gender, in the early modern era. In the process Stavreva
reconstructs the speech acts of individual contentious women, such
as the scold Janet Dalton, the witch Alice Samuel, and the Quaker
Elizabeth Stirredge. Because the dramatic potential of women's
powerful rhetorical performances was recognized not only by victims
and witnesses of individual violent speech acts but also by theater
professionals, Stavreva also focuses on how the stage, arguably the
most influential cultural institution of the Renaissance era,
orchestrated and aestheticized women's fighting words and, in so
doing, showcased and augmented their cultural significance.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!