Europe
Review by: Barbara Becker-Cantarino
Signs, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 152-175
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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"FeministConsciousness"and "Wicked
Witches":RecentStudieson Womenin
EarlyModern Europe
Barbara Becker-Cantarino
Worksreviewed
Amussen, SusanDwyer.An OrderedSociety:Genderand ClassinEarly
ModernEngland.Oxford:BasilBlackwell, 1988.
Benson,PamelaJoseph.The Inventionof RenaissanceWoman:The
Challengeof FemaleIndependence in theLiteratureand Thoughtof
Italy and England.University Park: PennsylvaniaStateUniversity
Press,1992.
Cohen,Sherrill. The Evolutionof Women's Asylums since1500: From
Refuges forEx-ProstitutestoShelters
forBattered Women. New York
and Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press,1992.
Ezell,MargaretJ.M. The Patriarch's Wife:LiteraryEvidenceand the
Historyof theFamily.ChapelHill and London:University of North
CarolinaPress,1987.
MicheleLongino.
Farrell, PerformingMotherhood: TheSevigneCorrespon-
dence.HanoverandLondon:University PressofNewEngland, 1991.
Gibson,Wendy.Womenin Seventeenth-Century France.London:Mac-
millan,1989.
Hester,Marianne. LewdWomen and WickedWitches: A StudyoftheDy-
namicsofMaleDomination. LondonandNewYork:Routledge, 1992.
Hobby, Elaine. Virtueof Necessity:
English Women's Writing,1649-
1688. London:ViragoPress,1988.
Howe,Elizabeth. TheFirstEnglishActresses:
Women andDrama,1660-
1700. Cambridge: Cambridge Press,1992.
University
Jankowski, TheodoraA. Womenin Powerin EarlyModernDrama.
of IllinoisPress,1992.
Urbana and Chicago: University
Jones,Ann Rosalind. The Currencyof Eros: Women'sLove Lyric in
Europe, 1540-1620. Bloomingtonand Indianapolis:Indiana Univer-
sityPress,1990.
[Signs:Journalof Womenin Cultureand Society1994, vol. 20, no. 1]
? 1994 byThe Universityof Chicago.All rightsreserved.
0097-9740/95/2001-0001$01.00
H E PROGRAMMATICALLY titledanthologiesBecom-
ing Visiblein Historyand RewritingtheRenaissancehave led
the way in a flourishingof feministstudiesduringthe past
decade or so on women in earlymodernEurope,thatseminal
periodfromthe Reformationto the FrenchRevolutionthatwas forma-
tiveformodernEurope and, to quite some extent,forthecontemporary
West.1The broad periodization"Early Modern Europe," now current
among historians(though eyed with suspicion by some Renaissance
scholars in English departments)signals the interdisciplinarityof this
field,eschewingfirmtemporal,national,geographical,and disciplinary
boundaries.2This shiftis especiallyimportantforthestudyof womenas
a group and individually.For women (to be sure,withquite some vari-
ance dependingon social stationor class, nationalityor ethnicity,
politi-
cal and culturalor religiousspace, and individualcircumstances),the
earlymodernperiodmeant:domesticationin thepatriarchalhousehold,
1Renate ClaudiaKoonz,and SusanStuard,eds.,Becoming Visible:
Bridenthal,
WomeninEuropeanHistory, 2d ed. (Boston:Houghton Mifflin,1987);Margeret W.
Ferguson, MaureenQuilligan,andNancyJ.Vickers, eds.,RewritingtheRenaissance:
TheDiscoursesofSexualDifference in EarlyModernEurope(Chicagoand London:
UniversityofChicagoPress,1986).
2 See LeahS. ModernStudies," in Redrawing theBound-
Marcus,"Renaissance/Early
aries:TheTransformation ofEnglishand American Literary ed. Stephen
Studies, Green-
blattand GilesGunn(NewYork:ModernLanguageAssociation, 1992),41-63; andthe
introductionto Ferguson, andVickers,
Quilligan, eds.,whichdismantles thetraditional
notionofliterary"Renaissance"studiesas elitist
andobliviousto womenandimpliesits
transformationintoearlymodernstudies.
6 Gerda
Lerner,The Creationof Patriarchy(New York: OxfordUniversity Press,
1986), 5.
7 See Karen Offen'sinsightfulbut contestedessay; "DefiningFeminism:A Historical
Approach,"Signs 14, no. 1 (Autumn1988): 135-50; and Sandra Lee Bartky,"Toward a
Phenomenologyof FeministConsciousness"(1976), reprintedin her Femininity and
Domination:Studiesin the Phenomenologyof Oppression(New York and London:
Routledge,1990), 11-21. For a trenchantcritiqueof the discourseof (female)subjectiv-
ityand identityin referenceto the earlymodernperiod,see Carol Thomas Neely,"Con-
structing the Subject:FeministPracticeand the New RenaissanceDiscourses,"English
LiteraryHistory18 (1988): 5-18.
10Ruth
Kelso,Doctrine fortheLadyoftheRenaissance (Urbana:UniversityofIllinois
Press,1956).Kelso'sis stillthemostthorough andcomprehensive oftheseaccounts
though sheremains oftenunacknowledged (orperhaps unread).Seealsothemuch-quoted
(inEnglish Renaissance Ian Mclean,TheRenaissance
studies) NotionofWoman(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,1980),whoemphasizes theethicalandmedicalvision
ofmarriage as a naturalstateforwhichwomanis destined to enterandto remain.
11JacobBurckhardt, TheCivilizationoftheRenaissance in Italy(1860),trans.
S. G. C. Middlemore (NewYork:Boni,1935).
12 Joan
Kelly,"Did WomenHave a Renaissance?" reprintedin Bridenthal,
Koonz,
and Stuard, eds.(n. 1 above),137-64; MerryWiesner, Working Womenin Renaissance
Germany (NewBrunswick, N.J.:RutgersUniversityPress,1986),reviewed (withother
pertinent works)byOlwenHuftoninSigns14,no. 1 (Autumn 1988):223-28; Alice
Clark'sinfluential The Working Lifeof Women in theSeventeenthCentury (1919) has
beenreprinted (London:Routledge, 1992) withan excellent
introductionandnewbibli-
ography byAmyLouiseErickson.
13 JoanKelly, "EarlyFeminist TheoryandtheQuerelledesfemmes, 1400-1789,"
Signs8, no. 1 (Autumn 1982):4-28.
gatemorefullytheprocessof evolvingfeminist
emancipatory
thought
and women'sconflictual withpatriarchal
relationship and
perceptions
and to includewomenauthorsfromotherEuropeancoun-
institutions
triesas well.
Duringthepasttwodecadesmostfeminist scholarshaveechoedthe
male-authorized, elevatedviewof thegreatMiddleAgesin numerous
studiesand collections on medievalwomenwhileclinging to thestraws
of meager,androcentric sourcesand a tinycanonofgreatwomen,no-
tablyHildegardof Bingenand Christine de Pizan (bothconveniently
availableinrecent English translations
andthesubjectofnumerous treat-
ments).15 Bycontrast, Renaissancesourcesconcerning womenbecome
muchmorecopious,varied,andexpressive withtheproliferation ofprint.
Anexcellent surveyofwhatwe "know"aboutwomenofthisperiodcan
be foundin Margaret L. King's Womenof the Renaissance,which
describes women'splace in thefamily, thechurch,and in highculture
fromabout the fourteenth throughthe seventeenth century,focusing
especiallyon Englandandnorthern Italy(Venice).King'sproject(andthe
book'stitle)appealsto our traditional notionsof the Renaissanceas
a "great"epochbyforegrounding womenin highculture.Yetas well-
roundedand seemingly comprehensive as thisstudyis,italertsus to the
difficulties
inherentin anycohesivenarrative ofwomen'shistory across
time,class, and geography.16 Conceptsof "highculture,"anecdotal
15Recenthistoricalstudiesand collectionsincludeEdithEnnen,The Medieval
Woman (Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1989), a broad West-Europeansurveyon women's
roles and places in westernEurope; Claudia Opitz, Evatochterund Briute Christi:Weib-
licherLebenszusammenhang und Frauenkultur im spdtenMittelalter(Weinheim:Studi-
enverlag,1990), a collectionof studieson religiousand on "unruly"women; P. J.P.
Goldberg,ed., WomanIs a WorthyWight:Womenin EnglishSocietyc. 1200-1500
(WolfeboroFalls, N.H.: Alan Sutton,1992) containsessayson women as landholders(a
readingof Pizan), on the sexual divisionof labor and women'seconomicactivity(as re-
vealed in manorialcourtrolls),on patternsof femalecharity(based on wills in various
Yorkshireprobatecollections),and femalepiety(readingnunneryarchitecture, iconogra-
phy,and seals). Interpretive
studiesincludeClarissaW. Atkinson,The Oldest Vocation:
ChristianMotherhoodin the Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y.: CornellUniversity Press,1991);
MargaretA. Miles, Carnal Knowledge:Female Nakednessand ReligiousMeaningin the
ChristianWest(New York: VintageBooks, 1991); Sabina Flanagan,Hildegardof Bin-
gen, 1098-1179: A VisionaryLife (London: Routledge,1989); and Maureen Quilligan,
The Allegoryof Female Authority:Christinede Pizan's Cite des Dames (Ithaca, N.Y.,
and London: CornellUniversity Press,1991).
16 King's book has simultaneously appeared in French,German,and Italian transla-
tionsin the respectivecountries;it will thusprobablyserveas a standardwork on Re-
naissancewomen forsome timeto come. For a discussionof the problematicsof wom-
en's historywithsome referenceto the earlymodernperiod,see ElizabethFox-
Genovese,"Individualismand Women'sHistory"and "Strugglefora FeministHistory,"
both in her FeminismwithoutIllusions:A Critiqueof Individualism(Chapel Hill and
remarkablewhilethelargelygenteeland sophisticatedpoeticformsseem
no longerimportantand have given way to the seventeenthcentury's
religiousconflicts.
That same centurysaw the entranceof women onto the professional
stageas actressesin Restorationdramareplacingtheboy actorsin female
rolesand allowingwomena publicvoice forthefirsttimein theEnglish
theatermorethana hundredyearsafterwomen began actingon profes-
sional stagesin Italy,France,Spain, and Germany.21 ElizabethHowe's
well-researched, concise study The FirstEnglish Actresses: Womenand
Drama, 1660-1700 shows that thelegacy forwomen in what is consid-
ered the age of the performer's theaterwas a mixed one: actresseswere
almostentirelycontrolledby male managersand playwrights and were
on
sexually(and economically)exploited stage and off.
Yet it was a rare
opportunity to earn fame and money in the public arena and to engage
in intellectualand artisticpursuitsoutside the home or family,even if
actresses"facedprejudice,antagonismand a varietyof patriarchallaws
and traditions,all of whichmade sexual equalityin thetheatre(as else-
where)an impossibility" (176). Feministquestionsraised (and explicitly
articulatedand discussed) in this study concern sexual equality,the
women actor'spossibleinfluenceon the dramaticportrayaland percep-
tion of women, and theirpossible challengeto traditional,patriarchal
attitudes;such questions (not a preconceivedtheoreticalnet), though
clearlyrootedin our presentinterests, open up thepast to a meaningful
reading.It would be of interestto integrateHowe's insightful observa-
tionson thefirstprofessionalactressesintotheconsiderableliterature on
Restorationdrama and to explore in more detail and in a European
contextwomen'sentranceonto thestage,bothin amateurperformances
in aristocraticcircles(whichprecededwomen'sprofessionalacting)and
in the professionalarena. Also, the complexinterrelationship of sexual-
ity,performancepractices,and genderand the influenceon dramatic
textshas yetto be exploredbyliteraryscholarswithattentionto existing
textsand records.Howe's studyhas shown,once again, thata sophisti-
cated readingof "women and drama" growsout of beingembeddedin
the richlydocumentedculturalcontextof the age.
In a similarmanner,BarbaraKieferLewalskiin herrecentimpressive
study,WritingWomeninJacobeanEngland,stressestheneed forreading
women's texts "with the full scholarlyapparatus of textual analysis,
historicalsynthesis,and literaryinterpretation at play" (2). An eclectic
assemblageof a handful of disparatetexts, so fashionable in some new
historicistRenaissance studies,simplywill not do. Lewalski examines
21 K.
Hecker,"Die Frauenin den friihenCommedia dell'ArteTruppen,"in Die
Schauspielerin:Zur Kulturgeschichte ed. Renate Mohr-
der weiblichenBiihnenkunst,
mann (Frankfurt: Insel, 1989), 27-58, esp. 35-38.
ninewomenauthorsfromtheculturalelitewho wereactivelyinvolvedin
Jacobean culture(Queen Anne, PrincessElizabeth,Arbella Stuart,the
Countessof Bedford,Anne Clifford,Rachel Speght,ElizabethCary,Ae-
miliaLanyer,and MaryWroth),recovering theirtextsand analyzinghow
they wrote themselves and theirworld. Not a cohesivegroupnor repre-
sentativeof women in power or even in the same ranksof society,these
women all managed "to develop a strongsense of self,to claim identity
as authors,and to produce textswhich consistentlythoughvariously
resist,oppose, and rewritepatriarchalnorms"(3). Lewalski stressesthe
oppositionalfeatures,the rewritingof patriarchy, and the literaryrevi-
sions of these authors and theirworks. While avoiding termingthese
authorsfeminists, she adroitlymanages to show theircontributionsto
Jacobean culture, the one hand, and how thesewomen collectively
on
challengedpatriarchalideology,on the other;theyrewrote"the major
discoursesof theirera in strikinglyoppositionalterms"(309) and their
texts were profoundlyconcernedwith the politics of gender.Clearly,
aspectsof feminist consciousnessare emergingherein thesewomenwrit-
ers "as theycontextualizeeach otherand as theyinteractwithcontem-
poraryculturalforcesand literarytraditions"(309).
Such feministconsciousnessis a threadwith which women's books
"continueeach other,"as VirginiaWoolfput it,and what drawsfeminist
literaryscholarsto Europe'searlymodernperiodin thefirstplace. Recent
major work on Frenchwomen likewisebears thisout. In a meticulously
executed,detailedstudyof women in seventeenth-century salon culture
in France, Renate Baader's Dames de lettresfocuseson, among other
coterie authors, Mile de Scudery,Mile de Montpensier,and Mme
d'Aulnoy.22Baader shows the salon to be a woman's place and a struc-
ture that allows theirintellectualdevelopment,literaryeducation,and
creativity.Baader gives a refreshing revaluationof the oral traditions,
languagegames,and sociabilityof thesalon, a phase of feminineenlight-
enmentthatis followed(and devalued) by the subsequentmale Enlight-
enmentin the eighteenthcentury.Adoptingan insider'spoint of view,
Baader'saccountof feminineself-development and educationadds a new
dimensionto what ironicallyhas been called "paradise of women" in
seventeenth-century France.23
Two otherrecentstudieson seventeenth-century Frenchwomenneatly
complementand extend Baader's and Lougee's work. WendyGibson's
Womenin Seventeenth-Century France providesan insightful overview
22
R. Baader, Dames de lettres:Autorinnendes prezi6sen,hocharistokratischen
und
'modernen'Salons (1649-1698): Mile de Scudery-Mlle de Montpensier-Mme
d'Aulnoy(Stuttgart:Metzler 1987).
23
See CarolynLougee, Le paradis des femmes:WomenSalons and Social Stratifica-
tion in Seventeenth-CenturyFrance (Princeton,N.J.: PrincetonUniversity
Press,1976).
38
Counter-Reformation Spain restoredthe "natural"orderof God, man, and
woman, as Mary ElizabethPerryhas shown in Genderand Disorder in Early Modern
Seville(Princeton,N.J.: PrincetonUniversityPress,1990); thismeanta carefuldistinc-
tion betweenbad women and good, a closerregulationof prostitutes, and protective
enclosureforall others.
era for women's social developmentand for settingthe stage for the
emergenceof feministconsciousness.
The role of religionand the effectsof the Reformationand the
Counter-Reformation on women'slivesdeservespecialattention.39 Phyl-
lis Mack's thoroughlyresearchedand richlytexturedstudy Visionary
Women:EcstaticProphecyin Seventeenth-Century Englandinterweaves
of
questions genderhistory and issues in the historyof religionin her
reading of the vast of
body autobiographicalwritings, letters,and vision-
ary texts from two of
generations Quaker women from about 1640 to
1700. The earliestQuakers were radical and democratic,as theyappre-
ciated women as "help-meets"and consideredthe humanand religious
attributesof men and women to be fluidand interchangeable; the first
femaleprophetsclaimed the rightto preach in public and beforethe
doors of Parliamentby assuminga male religiouspersona and the au-
thorityof men. Quaker women traveledwidelyand independently, ex-
pressing moral and doctrinal insightsas well as visions.Women's proph-
ecy duringthe civil war period was wide-rangingand utopian,but, as
Mack argues, it also entaileda denial of womanhood as a source of
public power and expressiveness.By contrast,Quaker women of the
second generationincreasingly emphasized,besides"beingin the light,"
theintegrity and authority oftheirfamilialroleas mothersand daughters
and embraced,explicitlyand implicitly, bourgeoisvalues and views of
genderand class.40Quaker women'sincreasedauthority(expressingre-
ligiousopinions,traveling, working,and earningand controlling fundsin
thehousehold)also entailedsome sacrifices, especiallythe"cultivationof
a painfuldouble consciousness:thedenigrationof one partof themind,
called 'the creature,'by anotherpart of the mind,which watched and
subduedit" (411). It seemsthatwoman'seternaldilemmain Christianity,
the sin/penitence duality,is cloaked herein theflesh-spirit dichotomyas
femaleconscience.Women'sperceived"unruliness," so itseems,had been
internalized, had become part of theirown, self-regulatory conscience.
Departmentof German
Ohio State University