Dynamics of Inheritance on the Shakespearean Stage

The first full-length study of the ways in which Shakespearean drama influenced and expanded notions of inheritance in early modern England.

List of contents

Introduction: staging inheritance in early modern England; 1. Crooked titles and inconstant estates; 2. Revision and inaccessibility in The Duchess of Malfi; 3. Travel, displacement, and the prodigal son; 4. Dislocation and the loss of issue in Pericles; 5. Claustrophobia and urban affiliation in Volpone and Epicene; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

About the author

Michelle M. Dowd is Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Her previous publications include Women's Work in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2009), Early Modern Women on the Fall: An Anthology (co-edited with Thomas Festa, 2012), Working Subjects in Early Modern English Drama (co-edited with Natasha Korda, 2011), and Genre and Women's Life Writing in Early Modern England (co-edited with Julie A. Eckerle, 2007). She has also published on early modern drama and women's writing in journals including Modern Philology, English Literary Renaissance, Renaissance Drama, and Shakespeare Studies.

Summary

The first book-length study examining how the Shakespearean theatre shaped attitudes about primogeniture, one of England's most important and longstanding socio-economic systems. This book offers a new understanding of the history of both inheritance and patriarchy in early modern England, appealing to readers interested in Renaissance drama, economic history, family history, and gender studies.

Product details

• Authors: Dr Michelle M. Dowd, Michelle M. Dowd
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2015
• EAN: 9781107099777
• ISBN: 978-1-107-09977-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Education and learning > Adult education/adult education classes; Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, C 1600 To C 1700, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Genealogy, heraldry, names & honours, Literary studies: plays and playwrights