Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-Starvation - The Skull Beneath the Skin

Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-starvation: The Skull Beneath the Skin is a unique exploration of why early modern noblewomen starved themselves, how they understood their behaviour, and how it was interpreted and received by their contemporaries.

List of contents

Introduction; Contexts: 1. Modern vs early modern bodies: anorexia nervosa and other historically situated forms of self-starvation; 2. Fasting and food in early modern society: ‘At dinner, supper or in taverns’; 3. Women, food and early modern households, ‘None other wyse than the capitaine of a garison’; 4. The female body in early modern England - ‘Oh, that we may call these delicate creatures ours/and not their appetites!’; 5. Women and self-starvation on the Renaissance stage - ‘Dead’ ‘Dead!’ ‘Starved!’; Case Studies: 6. Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor: eating and identity, royalty and resistance; 7. ‘The body of a weak and feeble woman’: Elizabeth and eating, power, politics and penetration; 8. ‘With my body, I thee worship’: The tragedy of Lady Katherine Grey; 9. 'So Wilfully Bent': Arbella Stuart, starvation, strategy and survival; Conclusion: The skull beneath the skin: starvation and embodied selfhood then and now; Bibliography; Appendix: supporting studies on modern eating disorders, a selection

About the author

Sasha Garwood is an interdisciplinary scholar focusing on gender, sex and food as a nexus of cultural anxieties from the early modern period to the present. She studied at UCL and Keble College Oxford, is currently a Fellow of the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, and teaches History at Sheffield and English Literature at the University of Nottingham.

Summary

Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-starvation: The Skull Beneath the Skin is a unique exploration of why early modern noblewomen starved themselves, how they understood their behaviour, and how it was interpreted and received by their contemporaries.

Product details

• Authors: Sasha Garwood, Sasha (University of Sheffield Garwood, Sasha (University of Sheffield Uk) Garwood
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.01.2019
• EAN: 9781138280441
• ISBN: 978-1-138-28044-1
• No. of pages: 262
• Series: Routledge Research in Early Modern History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; European History, HISTORY / General, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 17th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, HISTORY / Women, British & Irish history, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Social and cultural history, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, History and Archaeology