Thesis
To err in the eyes of the authorities: Lady Eleanor Davies and the reclamation of prophetic speech
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103477
Abstract
Female prophecy of the seventeenth century has, of late, become popularized by literary scholars through the emergence of biographical literature on famous prophets. Prophecy occupies multiple spaces in the genre of women's writing in the English Revolution, including religious, political, and legal. While these women provide an interesting untapped source of scholarship that engages a variety of literary fields, feminist theory has been the frontrunner in exploring prophecy due to its engagement with issues of gender agency and speech over thousands of years. Feminists have begun to investigate female prophets as largely disregarded historical figures faded into obscurity. Specifically, scholarship has focused on Anna Trapnel, a famous physical prophet who gathered a large following after the execution of Charles I. Lady Eleanor Davies, another prophet of the same period, has been largely overlooked despite her prolific publication. Beginning in 1625, Lady Eleanor began having visions of the future, the content of which focused on the political atmosphere of the day. Throughout her life she was imprisoned, committed to Bedlam, and constantly dismissed for her tracts, yet she still continued to write in the face of those challenges. Because of her status as contradictory and problematic writer, Davies specifically has avoided a great deal of analysis until recently. This thesis will invoke Jürgen Habermas' conceptualization of the public sphere in order to discuss Lady Eleanor's exclusion from public discourse during the seventeenth century. I will argue that because of her attempts to join the public sphere she was subsequently classified as mad in order to discredit her accurate prophecies.
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Details
- Title
- To err in the eyes of the authorities
- Creators
- Caitlin Marie Cornell
- Contributors
- Todd Wayne Butler (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525186901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis