Masculine Births

Nyhet

Milton, Women, and the Law

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

589 kr

Kommande

Examining the legal lives of early modern women through Milton's literary worksIn his History of Britain, John Milton writes, "Laws are Masculin Births . . . nothing [is] more awry from the Law of God and Nature, then that a Woman should give Laws to Men." In this interdisciplinary study, Lynne Greenberg explores the normative and nonnormative legal lives of early modern women as depicted in Milton's works—unmarried and married women, mothers, heiresses, widows, and queens—providing cogent overviews of the laws of multiple jurisdictions to offer critical context for each case study. Greenberg explores a wide range of legal-juridical materials and previously unexplored archival and private family documents. As she demonstrates, while Milton's narratives are at times enmeshed in existing jural paradigms, they also offer resistant responses to marital, custodial, property, inheritance, and criminal laws and even imagine alternative jural paradigms for women. Through Masculine Births: Milton, Women and the Law, Greenberg deftly reveals that Milton both reproduces seventeenth-century legal constructs and gives birth to laws that move us toward greater equality for women.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-03-16
Mått152 x 229 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieRethinking the Early Modern
Antal sidor256
FörlagNorthwestern University Press
ISBN9780810149847

Tillhör följande kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skonlitteratur
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skonlitteratur
Genusvetenskap inom Samhalle och politik
Rättshistoria inom Juridik

"We have long known that Milton situates women at the heart of his works. To this, Greenberg makes the arresting and compelling claim that when he thinks about or represents women, Milton does so with an awareness of their specifically legal standing. Masculine Births is a fine work of scholarship with top-notch research that stands to advance the field and fill an important gap." —Alison Chapman, University of Alabama at Birmingham"Masculine Births is a breath of fresh air. By examining Milton's works in the light of seventeenth-century English law, Greenberg offers new insights not only into Milton's fictional women but also into the historical women he interacted with. Always vigilant and never merely wishful, Greenberg demonstrates that Milton's liberationist project extends to women, even if he did not always want it to." —John Leonard, Western University