The Literature of Early Modern Childhoods

The peculiar challenge posed by studying Shakespearean masculinity is its resistance to inquiry. Patriarchal ideologies function precisely by taking a specific form of male power, the power of the father, as neutral, given and, therefore, not an available object of study. Scholars have faced this challenge by examining masculinity at those very moments when it falters and fractures. The study of Shakespeare's male characters has an extensive history, and for much of that history, these characters were interesting and significant because they told us something about mankind, about human beings in general. Examining masculinity rather than men, scholars rethought the study of maleness as a feminist project and made a fertile space for historical study that draws out the contours of manliness in all its historical specificities. Such study lays the groundwork for new analyses that interrogate the association between masculine attributes and culturally valued forms of self. These analyses do more than simply question the dominance of men but propose alternative ideas of the masculine and alternative forms of human flourishing.

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confidence: 99%

Shakespeare and Masculinity

Feather

2015

“…Interest in early modern children has exploded over the past two decades, resulting in new histories of growing up in Shakespeare’s England and new understandings of the representation of childhood in literature. The pressing nature of these scholarly investigations is demonstrated by the existence of two recent Literature Compass articles already devoted to the topic: Joseph Campana’s “Shakespeare’s Children” and Edel Lamb’s“The Literatures of Early Modern Childhood.” Campana focuses on the relationship between Shakespeare studies and the history of childhood, while Lamb uncovers the surprising variety of texts that were written by and directed to children in the period. This renewed awareness of children in early modern culture has resulted in a broadening of the focus on Shakespeare’s boys that dominated analyses of gender and sexuality in the 1990s.…”

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confidence: 99%

Shakespeare and Girlhood

Higginbotham

2013

This article examines the burgeoning field of Shakespeare and Girls’ Studies, highlighting some of the exciting developments that have taken place in the past 5–10 years. Inspired by the growing interest in early modern children and childhood, scholars have begun to ask where girls fit into the equation. Although Shakespeare uses the word “girl” nearly seventy times, only four of his characters are what we would identify as pre‐adolescent female children: Clarence’s daughter in RichardIII, the infant Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, the infant Marina in Pericles, and the infant Elizabeth I in HenryVIIII. More difficult to categorize are young characters like Juliet, who is only thirteen but poised on the cusp of womanhood, and young women like Miranda in The Tempest, who are romantic heroines but still under the authority of their fathers. The category of the girl is slippery and contested in Shakespeare’s time as well as our own, and since constructions of girlhood have changed over time, it can be even more difficult to pin down exactly what is meant by Shakespeare’s girls. These problems of definition have required scholars of Shakespeare’s girls to carefully define what they mean by the term, but those challenges have also helped them produce nuanced accounts of how his plays produce female characters as girls and how his plays have been used to produce ideas about girlhood over time.

Shakespeare’s Children

Campana

2011

Shakespeare had a thing for children. Ann Blake counts 30, Mark Heberle 39, Mark Lawhorn 45, and Carol Chillington Rutter counts well over 50 child parts. What it means that Shakespeare included more child figures in his plays and poems than his contemporaries remains an incitement to conversation as a recent burst of scholarship makes evident. That this interest follows the institutionalization of the study of children's literature and the formation of childhood studies programs is instructive. Approaches taken by humanities scholars may not hold the same political sway as psychological or sociological studies, some of which have real implications for the policies and standards that impact the lives of actual children. But since attempts to tell the history of childhood often produce fantasies of the ideal, sentimental child, the works of Shakespeare offer an opportunity to understand constructions and fictions of childhood in a time of the rapidly shifting cultural and historical valuation of children. This essay examines central questions and problems in the study of early modern child figures, reviews past approaches to and recent publications on early modern children, suggests topics yet to be explored in the context of the child figures of Shakespeare and his contemporaries (sexuality, temporality, sovereignty, humanity, and economy), and concludes by suggesting we think of Shakespeare's children not as strictly historical or affective objects but, rather, as figures pressed to signify with respect to cultural expectations of value, sovereignty, and futurity.