Abstract
In this dissertation, I undertake an examination of a concept which I have termed ‘parodic maternity’, a phrase largely inspired by Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity, and specifically her use of parody as a means through which women can negotiate power from within traditional, patriarchal structures. I do so to understand how non-traditional forms of motherhood could prove to be subversive and destabilising within an early modern English patriarchal culture.Examinations of motherhood in early modern England have primarily focused on biological maternity – non-biological and other alternative forms have traditionally been regarded as interesting outliers but never examined to their full potential. This thesis seeks to redefine and reengage with how exactly we define and identify motherhood during this time by paying attention to early modern non-biological and non-traditional forms of motherhood. I believe that when we open up discussions of maternity to include surrogate motherhood (including foster mothers, adoptive mothers, stepmothers, nurses etc.), and consider performances of maternity outside the biological bond, we are able to discover new ways of thinking about what it meant to be a mother and how one could embody the role in early modern England and on the early modern stage and page. This recognition of a broader spectrum of identities which engage with culturally constructed concepts of maternity can also help us to recognise and engage with forms of biological maternity that failed to abide by the strict tenets of motherhood that existed during the early modern period, and gives us new frameworks through which to read the texts in which early modern motherhood is performed.
I divide my research into four sections, focusing on foster/adoptive mothers, stepmothers, women who experienced child loss and infertility, and ultimately returning to the biological bond in the final chapter to consider women who parody supposedly natural motherly love by neglecting their offspring. My research will span the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I (roughly covering the years 1560 to 1630), and consider letters, mother’s manuals, diaries, religious and political discourse, alongside early modern dramatic texts. Non-traditional maternal roles, I argue, are all able to parody motherhood as they both embody and reject it as an identity, and in doing so they complicate our traditional understanding of the maternal function within an explicitly patriarchal system. Through an in-depth and previously unexplored examination of these various roles, I show that there was a much broader variety of ways in which motherhood could be enacted and performed than early modern conduct literature and previous scholarship might lead us to believe, and that forms of motherhood which deviated from the patriarchal construction of maternity posed a destabilising challenge to dominant constructions of social roles, particularly with regards to gender, sexuality and social status.
| Date of Award | 1 May 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Sarah Lewis (Supervisor) & Lucy Munro (Supervisor) |