Girlhood of Shakespeare's Sisters

The first full-length study of how the concept of the "e;girl"e; was constructed in sixteenth and seventeenth century literature and drama.The Girlhood of Shakespeare???s Sisters argues for a paradigm shift in our current conceptions of the early modern sex-gender system, challenging the widespread assumption that the category of the "e;girl"e; played little or no role in the construction of gender in early modern English culture. Girl characters appeared in a variety of texts, from female infants in Shakespeare???s late romances to little children in Tudor interludes to adult "e;roaring girls"e; in city comedies. Drawing from a variety of print and manuscript sources, including early modern drama, dictionaries, midwifery manuals, and women???s autobiographies, this book argues that girlhood in Shakespeare???s England was both a time of life and a form of gender transgression.Key Features:* Charts the emergence of the word "e;girl"e; into early modern English and its evolution from a gender-neutral term applied to both male and female children to one used only for female individuals* Challenges the misconception that girls were largely absent from English Renaissance literature* Offers a literary history of female child characters in Renaissance drama* Features an examination of how women writers described their own girlhoods