Hug, Tobias B. (Tobias Benedikt) (2006) 'I come of to highe a bloode to be a roague for I am kynge of the Realme' : representations and perceptions of impostors in early modern England. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The thesis explores changes and continuities in the impostor phenomenon in England
over the period c. 1500-c. 1770. Several historical developments can be said to have
fostered a climate of social dislocation in which the language of deception and fraud
became an important cultural phenomenon. Rather than following the discourse of
imposture primarily through intellectual debates, the thesis focuses on social experience
in a range of contemporary contexts. Drawing upon sources ranging from judicial
archives and other official sources to chronicles, newspapers, pamphlets and
autobiographical writings, the thesis investigates why someone might be considered an
impostor and how he or she was perceived and represented. It asks too how the selfperception
and fashioning of impostors - the shaping of their identities and stories,
understood as a cultural practice - was influenced by their social environment. Part One
focuses on the variety of impostors and their wider significance within the specific
contexts of social, political, religious, institutional or cultural change. Part Two links the
themes of imposture and autobiographical writing, and provides a micro-historical
analysis of a notorious late seventeenth/early eighteenth-century impostor who during his
lifetime assumed several different roles.
By exploring these episodes as autobiographical practices, the thesis also
contributes to the interdisciplinary debate on the nature of self-expression and
individualism in early modern England.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Impostors and imposture -- England -- History -- 16th century, Impostors and imposture -- England -- History -- 17th century
Official Date:	March 2006
Dates:	Date Event March 2006 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Capp, B. S.
Extent:	vi, 366 leaves
Language:	eng

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