Title Dangerous Familiars : Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550-1700

Published Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1994

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Description 1 online resource (270 pages) Contents Dangerous Familiars; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction; I. ""Home-rebels and House-traitors"": Petty Treason and the Murderous Wife; II. The Subordinate('s) Plot: Petty Treason and the Forms of Domestic Rebellion; III. Revolutions, Petty Tyranny, and the Murderous Husband; IV. Finding What Has Been ""Lost"": Representations of lnfanticide and The Winter's Tale; V. Witchcraft and the Threat of the Familiar; Epilogue; Index Summary Even now in the mass media, women are often portrayed as murderers in their own homes, although in reality women are much more likely to be the victims of domestic violence than the perpetrators. Looking back at images of violence in the popular culture of early modern England, we find similar misperceptions. The spector of the murderer loomed most vividly not in the stranger, but in the familiar; and not in the master, husband, or father, but in the servant, wife, or mother. A gripping exploration of seventeenth-century accounts of domestic murder in fact and fiction, this book is the first to ask why. The author examines stories ranging from the profoundly disturbing to the comically macabre: of husband murder, wife murder, infanticide, and witchcraft. She surveys trial transcripts, confessions, and gallows speeches, as well as pamphlets, ballads, and popular plays based on notorious crimes. Citing contemporary analogies between the politics of household and commonwealth, she shows how both legal and literary narratives attempt to restore the order threatened by insubordinate dependents. -- from Publisher description Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Crime -- England -- History -- 16th century Crime -- England -- History -- 17th century Crime Social conditions Familie Gewaltkriminalität Soziale Situation Criminaliteit. Dienstboden. Vrouwen. Echtgenoten. Beeldvorming. SUBJECT England -- Social conditions -- 16th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85043313 England -- Social conditions -- 17th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85043314 Subject England England Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781501707285 1501707280

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