Gender, Culture, Sexuality, and Society in Early Modern England

James Daybell, ed. Early Modern Women's Letter Writing, 1450-1700. New York: Palgrave, 2001. xiv + 213 pp.; contribs.; abbrevs. ISBN 0-333-94579-4 (cl).

Joyce Green MacDonald. Women and Race in Early Modern Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. vii + 188 pp.; index; bibliography. ISBN 0-52181-016-7 (cl).

Valerie Traub. The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ix + 492 pp. ISBN 0-52144-427-6 (cl); 0-52144-885-9 (pb).

As a historian of early modern women's intellectual history, I feel some-what inadequate in addressing these three studies of women and gender in early modern England (two works of literary criticism, the other of social and cultural history). Especially for the literary studies, which draw on a range of texts beyond my expertise of the late seventeenth century, I was often familiar only in the broadest terms with the works identified for study, and the scholarly and theoretical traditions into which they were placed. Thus for this review essay, any assessment will rely on knowledge and perspectives generated from women's history; a differing perspective would undoubtedly emerge from literary scholars. Each work, of course, falls within the reach of early modern studies, the broad area which those of us who study England from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century embrace.

Each of these books offers valuable insights into different aspects of women's lives during the late fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with the greatest attention given to the issues and events of the late 1500s and the 1600s. Daybell's collection has the widest chronological reach, while Traub's work is the most substantial and treats a wide range of texts from the late sixteenth into the eighteenth centuries. MacDonald's study, while focusing mostly on plays and masques performed during the early and then later seventeenth century, gives significant attention to theoretical concerns of the late twentieth century.

These works do have qualities in common: they all attempt to bridge the divide between cultural values and social realities; they also plumb the depths of theory and disciplinary disputes common to those studying their topics today. Yet, in many ways they are more different than similar; and thus make their linkage, in an intellectually meaningful analysis and assessment, a challenge. One difficulty emerges from the range of experiences the authors employ to yield the theory that underpins their scholarship. It sometimes feels, especially in reading the volumes on lesbianism and race, that actual early modern practice is of a lesser interest than responding to current theory and scholarly debates. It is this continual shift from early modern texts to current cultural and academic disputes that makes a simple description or assessment of these works most difficult. In looking at Traub's and MacDonald's works, one is often mired in the divide between their analysis of early modern events and their use of far-reaching theory.

My concern with this approach begins with the theory employed by Joyce MacDonald in her study of women and race in early modern texts. In this work, she highlights the importance of skin color and contends that a number of critics have played down actual skin color and highlighted the importance of gender and cultural difference when discussing issues relating to race or the "other." Again, there is much to learn from her insights (and she presents useful limitations on postmodern perspectives), but the great reach of her theoretical contributions raises doubt as to their legitimacy. In analyzing the use of racial qualities, and African characters, in plays and masques of the 1600s, she speaks on the nature of performatory qualities attached to their production. She thinks race, and skin color, are central here and have been relegated to a less important role in a broadly cultural framework, and one in which gender is allowed to displace race as the quality...