Identities in Early Modern English Writing

This collection of essays explores the representation of human identity in early modern English writing. The book engages with questions of identity conceived in literary, religious, social, and historical contexts. It addresses a number of important topics in early modern studies today: women’s writing, motherhood, religion, travel writing, and nationalism. Anne-Marie Strohman examines mother figures in the Old Arcadia and the New. Allyna E. Ward considers discourses of Tudor historiography in Anne Dowriche’s The French Historie. Marion Wynne-Davies discusses the representation of Ireland in the writings of Edmund Spenser and Elizabeth Cary. Ryan Hackenbracht turns to Hobbes’ Hebraism and the Last Judgment in Leviathan. Jayne Elisabeth Archer considers the manuscript remains of Lady Ann Fanshawe. Lisa Hopkins looks at theatrical representations of England’s empire in Europe. Anna Suranyi examines national identity in travel literature. From the intimacy of the mother-daughter relationship to the politics of national conflicts and international relations, the book broadens knowledge of the complexities of identity as represented in a selection of significant writings in English from the early modern period. Introduction by Lori Anne Ferrell; afterword by Mary Polito.