Virgin Mother, Maiden Queen

Was Elizabeth I worshipped by her subjects? Many twentieth-century scholars have suggested that the Virgin Queen was a cult-figure who replaced the Virgin Mary. But how could this be in a Protestant state officially opposed to idolatry? Helen Hackett examines these issues through readings of a wide variety of Elizabethan texts. She traces some of the cross-currents in Elizabethan culture, and considers both Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary in terms of the history of representations of gender, sexuality and power.

Autorentext

HELEN HACKETT is a Lecturer in the Department of English at University College London. She studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and was a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. She has written articles on women and writing in the Renaissance.

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Abbreviations Acknowledgements A Note on the Text Introduction Before Elizabeth A New Queen 1560-78: The Meanings of Virginity 1578-82: Into Perpetual Virginity 1583-93: Patronage, Prayers and Pilgrimages The 1590s: The Literature of Disillusionment Towards Death, and Beyond It Epilogue: Adulation or Anxiety? Notes Bibliography Index