Name: Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England
Price: 158.34 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Caroline Bicks
ISBN: 9781138256637

portada Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England

Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England

Type

Physical Book

Author

Caroline Bicks

Publisher

Routledge

Language

English

Pages

224

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781138256637

Synopsis "Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England"

At the intersections of early modern literature and history, Shakespeare and Women's Studies, Midwiving Subjects explores how Shakespearean drama and contemporary medical, religious and popular texts figured the midwife as a central producer of the body's cultural markers. In addition to attending most Englishwomen's births and testifying to their in extremis confessions about paternity, the midwife allegedly controlled the size of one's tongue and genitals at birth and was obligated to perform virginity exams, impotence tests and emergency baptisms. The signs of purity and masculinity, paternity and salvation were inherently open to interpretation, yet early modern culture authorized midwives to generate and announce them. Midwiving Subjects, then, challenges recent studies that read the midwife as a woman whose power was limited to a marginal and unruly birthroom community and instead uncovers the midwife's foundational role, not only in the rituals of reproduction, but in the process of cultural production itself. As a result of recent changes in managed healthcare and of increased attention to uncovering histories of women's experiences, midwives - past and present - are currently a subject of great interest. This book will appeal to readers interested in Shakespeare as well as the history of women and medicine.

Caroline Bicks

(Author)

View Author's Page

Escritora y educadora. Ex profesora adjunta en la Universidad Estatal de Ohio, Columbus; profesora asociada de inglés en el Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

También trabaja como actriz, escribe comentarios para la Radio Pública Nacional (NPR) , actúa regularmente en Improv Boston y participó en la producción neoyorquina de "Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Hear in Parenting Magazine". Anteriormente trabajó como profesora de secundaria.

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