Gender and Early Modern Constructions of Childhood

Naomi J. Miller is Professor of English and the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College, USA, and Naomi Yavneh is Director of the University Honors Program and Professor of Language and Culture at Loyola University New Orleans, USA.

• Contents: Introduction: early modern children as subjects: gender matters, Naomi J. Miller and Naomi Yavneh; Part 1 Conceptualizing Childhood: Loss and Celebration: A comfortable farewell: child-loss and funeral monuments in early modern England, Patricia Philippy; Parents, children, and responses to death in dream structures in early modern England, Carole Levin; Lost and found: Veronese's Finding of Moses, Naomi Yavneh; 'Certein childeplayes remembred by the fayre ladies': girls and their games, Katherine R. Larson. Part 2 Imprinting Identity: Education and Social Training: The facts of Enfance: Rabelais, Montaigne, Paré, and French Renaissance paediatrics, Marie Rutkoski; 'Our little darlings': Huguenot children and child-rearing in the letters of Louise de Coligny, Jane Crouchman; Anne Dormer and her children, Sara Mendelson; 'Obey and be attentive': gender and household instruction in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Kathryn M. Moncrief; Producing girls on the English stage: performance as pedagogy in Mary Ward's convent schools, Caroline Bicks. Part 3 Transitional Stages: Growing Up and Growing Old: Boys to men: codpieces and masculinity in 16th-century Europe, Carole Collier Frick; Marvell, boys, girls and men: should we worry?, Diane Purkiss; Martyrs and minors: allegories of childhood in Cervantes, Emilie L. Bergmann; Portraiture and royal family ties: kings, queens, princes, and princesses in Caroline England, Julia Marciari Alexander; 'Second childishness' and the Shakespearean vision of ideal parenting, Gregory M. Colón Semenza; Select works cited; Index.

'By bringing these essays together, this collection offers a clear depiction of the diverse constructions of childhood in early modern Europe... A substantial and innovative contribution to the fields of gender and early modern childhood studies.' Edel Lamb, The University of Sydney, Australia 'Miller and Yavneh have put together a commendable collection. The majority of the wide-ranging and often surprising essays offer fresh insightful research. It is a must for students and scholars alike who wish to be brought up to date on the often misunderstood experiences of early modern children.' Parergon