Agents of History: Women and Royal Politics in Early Modern Historical Narratives and Plays

This study analyzes history writing ranging from the chronicle history of Edward Hall and Polydore Vergil, the political histories of Thomas More and Francis Bacon, and the Protestant martyrology of John Foxe, to the canonical Shakespearean works and lesser-known dramas that comprised the history play genre, most popular in the 1590s but written as late as the 1630s. Unlike previous literary critics who view historical narratives primarily as source texts for history plays, I treat the narratives and plays as intertexts whose disjunctions have real effects on audiences and readers. I analyze Richard III, The True Tragedy of Richard III, Edward IV, Henry VIII, and Perkin Warbeck as thoughtful dramatic revisions of narrative history that invite readers and audiences to recall the contrastive historical accounts available across these genres. By juxtaposing intertextual histories, I show how competing representations of female figures informed popular historical consciousness and conceptions of women's participation in the emerging national identity of Tudor and Stuart England.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Meyer, Allison E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lori Humphrey Newcomb

• Theater History

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3425398

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/81464