Date of Award
4-30-2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Tanya Caldwell
Second Advisor
Dr. Malinda Snow
Third Advisor
Dr. Paul Schmidt
Abstract
In general, “closet dramas,” because they have been falsely considered failed stage plays, have received minimal scholarly attention. This dissertation situates itself as a re-evaluation of female authors’ manuscript and printed plays: Elizabeth Cary’s Mariam, Jane Cavendish and Elizabeth (Cavendish) Brackley’s The Concealed Fancies, Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure and Anne Finches’ Aristomenes, Or The Royal Shepherd. These plays use the coded rhetorical tool of literary equivocation to conceal yet reveal subversive political information which would attract the attention of the censor if acted upon the stage.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/11967154
Recommended Citation
Paxton-Wilson, Nancy, "Literary Equivocation: Women Playwrights and the Early Modern “Closet”." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2018.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/11967154