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Article: Death and the Early Modern Englishwoman.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Modern Humanities Research Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Death and the Early Modern Englishwoman. By LUCINDA M. BECKER. Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 2003. x+226 pp. 45 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-7546-3349-7.
With this book, Lucinda M. Becker attempts an exploration of the gendering of death in early modern England. Becker's assumptions of how gender (and, indeed, human behaviour) works are somewhat mechanistic. She posits pervasive and potent norms--notably chaste, silent, and compliant womanhood and the ideal of 'dying well'--and assumes that these norms fully govern and explain both early modern women's preparations for dying and the many texts that concern themselves with women's deaths.
The ...