| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 291 pages) |
| Series |
Edinburgh critical studies in Renaissance culture |
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Edinburgh critical studies in Renaissance culture.
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| Contents |
Introduction: friendship, gender, politics -- Indemnity for enemies, oblivion for friends: changing political allegiances in the English civil wars -- "Obligation here is injury": exemplary friendship in Katherine Philips's coterie -- The garden of Epicurus and the garden of Eden: friendship's counsel in De rurum natura and Order and disorder -- "Women, like princes, find no real friends": the manscript tradition and Katherine Philips's reputation -- Honoring friendship's shadows: marriage and political reputation in Lucy Hutchinson's writings -- Covert politics and separatist women's friendship: Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell |
| Summary |
Penelope Anderson's original study changes our understanding both of the masculine Renaissance friendship tradition and of the private forms of women's friendship of the eighteenth century and after. It uncovers the latent threat of betrayal lurking within politicized classical and humanist friendship, showing its surprising resilience as a model for political obligation undone and remade. Incorporating authors from Cicero to Abraham Cowley and Margaret Cavendish to Mary Astell, the book focuses on two extraordinary women writers, the royalist Katherine Philips and the republican Lucy Hutchinson. And it explores the ways in which they appropriate the friendship tradition in order to address problems of conflicting allegiances in the English Civil Wars and Restoration. As Penelope Anderson suggests, their writings on friendship provide a new account of women's relation to public life, organized through textual exchange rather than bodily reproduction. Key Features Studies early modern women's friendship in depth for the first time Offers an account of the classical and humanist discourse of friendship by revealing the centrality of betrayal to the Aristotelian, Ciceronian, and Epicurean traditions Intervenes within recent feminist and queer theory by showing textual friendship to be an alternative account of women's relation to public life Articulates the links between women's literary writing and political theories such as contract theory, natural sociability, and patriarchalism Contributes to the growing interest in early modern women's writing, drawing on extensive archival materials and texts |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
English |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Friendship in literature.
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Betrayal in literature.
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English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
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English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism
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Female friendship -- England -- History -- 17th century
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Women -- Intellectual life -- 17th century
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
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Betrayal in literature
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English literature -- Early modern
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English literature -- Women authors
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Female friendship
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Friendship in literature
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Women -- Intellectual life
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England
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2012545118 |
| ISBN |
9780748676620 |
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0748676627 |
|
9780748655830 |
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0748655832 |
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9780748655854 |
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0748655859 |
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9780748655847 |
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0748655840 |
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1299105580 |
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9781299105584 |
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