Subordinate Subjects: Gender, the Political Nation, and Literary Form in England, 1588-1688 (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

Considering as evidence literary texts, historical documents, and material culture, this interdisciplinary study examines the entry into public political culture of women and apprentices in 17th-century England, and their use of discursive and literary forms in advancing an imaginary of political equality. The book traces to the end of Elizabeth Tudor's reign in the 1590's the origin of this imaginary, analyzes its flowering during the English Revolution, and examines its afterlife from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. It uses post-Marxist theories of radical democracy, post-structuralist theories of gender, and a combination of political theory and psychoanalysis to discuss the early modern construction of the political subject. The author intends to make a distinctive contribution to the study of early modern English literature and culture through the book's chronological range, its innovative use of political psychoanalytic, and feminist theories, and its interdisciplinary focus on literature, social history, political thought, gender studies, and cultural studies.