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Illegitimate Power: Bastards in Renaissance Drama

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Illegitimate Power: Bastards in Renaissance Drama
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Alison Findlay
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:288
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 138
Category/GenreLiterary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780719080852
ClassificationsDewey:822.309
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Manchester University Press
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publication Date 1 May 2009
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In Renaissance Drama, the bastard is an extraordinarily powerful and disruptive figure. We have only to think of Caliban or of Edmund to realise the challenge presented by the illegitimate child. Drawing on a wide rage of play texts, Alison Findlay shows how illegitimacy encoded and threatened to deconstruct some of the basic tenets of patriarchal rule. She considers bastards as indicators and instigators of crises in early modern England, reading them in relation to witch craft, spiritual insecurities and social unrest in family and State. The characters discussed range from demi-devils, unnatural villains and clowns to outstanding heroic or virtuous types who challenge officially sanctioned ideas of illegitimacy. The final chapter of the book considers bastards in performance; their relationship with theatre spaces and audiences. Illegitimate voices, Findlay argues, can bring about the death of the author/father and open the text as a piece of theatre, challenging accepted notions of authority. -- .

Author Biography

Alison Findlay is Professor of English at Lancaster University -- .