McKenzie, Sarah (2003) Death, inheritance and the family : a study of literary responses to inheritance in seventeenth-century England. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis argues that a study of literary genres from the seventeenth century
pertaining to death and inheritance in the family yields evidence about the way in
which inheritance was understood and interpreted by early modern society; these
genres include parental legacies, women writers’ interpretations of Genesis, Anne
Clifford’s personal account of her struggle to gain her inheritance, plays (comedies
and tragedies) and elegies on the death of children. A study of literature related to the
topics of wills, legacies and lineage imparts insight into early modern concepts of
family relations and parental roles, and challenges Lawrence Stone’s views on the late
development of the affective family. The textual legacies of Elizabeth Joceline,
Elizabeth Grymeston, Dorothy Leigh and Edward Burton, and the elegies of Ben
Jonson and Katherine Philips will be used to demonstrate emotive parenting and the
extension of parental roles beyond the death of the parent or beyond the death of an
heir. Familial texts can be used to study the familial and political environments and
attitudes, but as will be proved in the thesis, literature, especially in the form of
legacies, elegies and exegeses, also had agency in creating new definitions of
inheritance external to the formal patriarchal basis of land and power transference
which many historians have considered the prime focus of study in the seventeenth
century. In addition Rachel Speght, Alice Sutcliffe, and Amey Hayward produced
interpretations of Genesis as literary testaments, asserting women’s role in the
creation of a less sinful, less patriarchal lineage. The ‘prodigal’ play structures of
Thomas Middleton and Aphra Behn compared with patriarchal political texts, and a
comparison of two versions of King Lear byWilliam Shakespeare and Nahum Tate
address the temporary interruption of patriarchal succession and highlight post-
Restoration changes to the ideological functions of inheritance.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Literature, Modern -- 17th century -- History and criticism, Inheritance and succession in literature, Death in literature, Families in literature, Inheritance and succession -- History -- 17th century
Official Date:	May 2003
Dates:	Date Event May 2003 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Wiseman, Susan
Extent:	348 leaves
Language:	eng

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