Authorizing early modern European women : : from biography to biofiction / / edited by James Fitzmaurice, Naomi J. Miller and Sara Jayne Steen.

• Superior document: Gendering the late medieval and early modern world
• TeilnehmendeR: Fitzmaurice, James,; Miller, Naomi J.,; Steen, Sara,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Gendering the late medieval and early modern world.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (287 pages) :; digital, PDF file(s).
• Notes: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 17 Dec 2021).

The essays in this volume analyze strategies adopted by contemporary novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, and biographers interested in bringing the stories of early modern women to modern audiences. It also pays attention to the historical women creators themselves, who, be they saints or midwives, visual artists or poets and playwrights, stand out for their roles as active practitioners of their own arts and for their accomplishments as creators. Whether they delivered infants or governed as monarchs, or produced embroideries, letters, paintings or poems, their visions, the authors argue, have endured across the centuries. As the title of the volume suggests, the essays gathered here participate in a wider conversation about the relation between biography, historical fiction, and the growing field of biofiction (that is, contemporary fictionalizations of historical figures), and explore the complicated interconnections between celebrating early modern women and perpetuating popular stereotypes about them.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Biography, Biofiction, and Gender in the Modern Age -- Section I: Fictionalizing Biography -- 2. Sister Teresa: Fictionalizing a Saint -- 3. Portrait of an Unknown Woman : Fictional Representations of Levina Teerlinc, Tudor Paintrix -- 4. An Interview with Dominic Smith , Author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos: Capturing the Seventeenth Century -- 5. Lanyer: The Dark Lady and the Shades of Fiction -- 6. Archival Bodies, Novel Interpretations , and the Burden of Margaret Cavendish -- Section II: Materializing Authorship -- 7. Bess of Hardwick: Materializing Autobiography -- 8. The Queen as Artist: Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart -- 9. "Very Secret Kept": Facts and Re- Creation in Margaret Hannay's Biographies of Mary Sidney and Mary Wroth -- 10. Imagining Shakespeare's Sisters : Fictionalizing Mary Sidney Herbert and Mary Sidney Wroth -- 11. Anne Boleyn, Musician: A Romance Across Centuries and Media -- Section III: Performing Gender -- 12. Reclaiming Her Time : Artemisia Gentileschi Speaks to the Twenty-First Century -- 13. Beyond the Record: Emilia and Feminist Historical Recovery -- 14. Writing, Acting, and the Notion of Truth in Biofiction About Early Modern Women Authors -- 15. Jesusa Rodríguez's Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz : Reflections on an Opaque Body -- Section IV: Authoring Identity -- 16. From Hollywood Film to Musical Theater : Veronica Franco in American Popular Culture -- 17. The Role of Art in Recent Biofiction on Sofonisba Anguissola -- 18. "I am Artemisia": Art and Trauma in Joy McCullough's Blood Water Paint -- 19. The Lady Arbella Stuart, a "Rare Phoenix" : Her Re-Creation in Biography and Biofiction -- 20. The Gossips' Choice : Extending the Possibilities for Biofiction with Creative Uses of Sources -- 21. Afterword -- Index