~The ornament of a woman is silence~ : censorship, mediation and female authorship in Tudor and Early Stuart England
Drawing from Sophocles, the minister, Henry Smith wrote in 1591 that ~the ornament of a woman is silence.~1 This dissertation explores how censorship, textual mediation, and societal expectations of female silence affected English women's writing in the first half of the early modern period. The true nature of censorship is a hotly debated topic in pre-modern historiography and literary studies, with some scholars arguing that censorship was administered and controlled by a hegemonic government; and others taking a more revisionist approach by presenting press control as a sporadic institution targeting seditious material. While this study engages with all of this previous work, it takes a unique perspective by centering on the female author, since all of this work relies exclusively on the experiences and texts of men, who were subjected to less societal control than their female counterparts. The thesis not only gives women a voice in current historiography, but also demonstrates how female authors were touched by censorship and textual manipulation. It will ultimately show that while mediation could have damaging consequences for a woman's text and reputation, it was also used to justify the female printed
Ferron, A.
~The ornament of a woman is silence~ : censorship, mediation and female authorship in Tudor and Early Stuart England. Drawing from Sophocles, the minister, Henry Smith wrote in 1591 that ~the ornament of a woman is silence.~1 This dissertation explores how censorship, textual mediation, and societal expectations of female silence affected English women's writing in the first half of the early modern period. The true nature of censorship is a hotly debated topic in pre-modern historiography and literary studies, with some scholars arguing that censorship was administered and controlled by a hegemonic government; and others taking a more revisionist approach by presenting press control as a sporadic institution targeting seditious material. While this study engages with all of this previous work, it takes a unique perspective by centering on the female author, since all of this work relies exclusively on the experiences and texts of men, who were subjected to less societal control than their female counterparts. The thesis not only gives women a voice in current historiography, but also demonstrates how female authors were touched by censorship and textual manipulation. It will ultimately show that while mediation could have damaging consequences for a woman's text and reputation, it was also used to justify the female printed
the ornament woman silence censorship mediation female authorship tudor_early stuart england drawing sophocles minister henry smith write the ornament woman silence explore censorship textual mediation societal expectation female silence affect english woman write first_half early_modern_period true nature censorship debate topic pre_modern historiography literary study scholar argue censorship administer control hegemonic government others take revisionist present press control sporadic institution target seditious material study_engage previous_work take unique_perspective center female author since work relies exclusively experience texts men subject less societal control female counterpart give woman voice current_historiography also_demonstrate female author touch censorship textual manipulation ultimately show mediation could damage consequence woman text reputation also use justify female print