Women’s Prophetic Writings in Seventeenth-Century Britain

272 Pages·2017·15.579 MB·English

by  Carme Font

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ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN RENAISSANCE
LITERATURE AND CULTURE
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in Seventeenth-Century Britain
Carme Font
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Women’s Prophetic Writings
in Seventeenth-Century Britain
This study examines women’s prophetic writings in seventeenth-century
Britain as the literary outcome of a discourse of social transformation
that integrates religious conscience, political participation, and gender
identity. The following pages approach prophecy as a culture, a lan-
guage, and a catalyst for collective change as the individual prophet con-
ceptualized it.
While the corpus of prophetic writing continues to grow as the re-
sult of archival research, this monograph complements our particu-
lar knowledge of women’s prophecy in the seventeenth century with a
global assessment of what makes speech prophetic in the first place, and
what are the differences and similarities between texts that fall into the
prophetic mode. These disparities and commonalities stand out in the
radical language of prophecy as well as in the way it creates an authorial
center. Examining how authorship is represented in several configura-
tions of prophetic delivery, such as essays on prophecy, poetic prophecy,
spiritual autobiography, and election narratives, the different chapters
consider why prophecy peaked in the years of the civil wars and how it
evolved toward the eighteenth century. The analyses extrapolate the pe-
culiarities of each case study as being representative of a form of textu-
ally based activism that enabled women to gain a deeper understanding
of themselves as creators of independent meaning, empowering them as
individuals, citizens, and believers.
Carme Font is Lecturer in English Literature at Universitat Autonoma
de Barcelona, Spain. She is also Research Associate at the UCLA Center
for Medieval & Renaissance Studies. She has published articles on early
modern women’s writing, and co-edited Mightier than the Spoon is the
Pen: Economic Imperatives for Women’s Writing in Europe Before 1800.
Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture
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Modern Drama
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35 Women’s Prophetic Writings in Seventeenth-Century Britain
Carme Font
Women’s Prophetic Writings
in Seventeenth-Century
Britain
Carme Font
Routledge -
Taylor & Fra
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2017 Carme Font
The right of Carme Font to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Font, Carme, author.
Title: Women’s prophetic writings in seventeenth-century
Britain / by Carme Font.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge
studies in Renaissance literature and culture | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016055538
Subjects: LCSH: English literature—Women authors—History
and criticism. |W omen and religion—England—History—17th
century. | Prophecy—Social aspects—England—History—17th
century. | Prophecy—Christianity—History—17th century. |
Feminism—England—History—17th century. | Women’s
rights—England—History—17th century. |W omen and
literature—England—History—17th century. | Religion
and literature—England—History—17th century. |
Reformation—England.
Classification: LCC PR111 .F66 20171 DDC
820.9/928709032—dc23
LC record available at https://Iccn.loc.gow/2016055538
ISBN: 978-1-138-64692-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62523-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Contents
List of figures Vii
Textual note ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The culture of prophecy in the English
Reformation 1
PART I
Politicum a7
1 Prophetic politics and revolutionary spirit ao
2 Women’s prophetic ministry 44
3 Confronting Parliament with the word: The case
for Elizabeth Poole 56
4 Politically incorrect prophecy 83
PART II
Protean feminisms 91
5 Prophecy and personal conscience 93
6 Exposing the prophetic word 104
7 The prophetic poetry of Anna Trapnel 114
8 Obstat sexus 139
vi Contents
PART III
In-communications
9 Prophetic word vision: Lady Eleanor Davies
and textual bi-location
10 The soul’s flight of Jane Lead
11 Prophecy and the transmutation of suffering
12 Prophetic activism
Conclusion: Old sectaries, new prophetesses
Bibliography 223
Index 247