In the first in-depth study of the interconnected relationships among public theatre, custodial institutions, and women in early modern Spain, Margaret E. Boyle explores the contradictory practices of rehabilitation enacted by women both on and off stage. Pairing historical narratives and archival records with canonical and non-canonical theatrical representations of women’s deviance and rehabilitation, Unruly Women argues that women’s performances of penitence and punishment should be considered a significant factor in early modern Spanish life.
Boyle considers both real-life sites of rehabilitation for women in seventeenth-century Madrid, including a jail and a magdalen house, and women onstage, where she identifies three distinct representations of female deviance: the widow, the vixen, and the murderess. Unruly Women explores these archetypal figures in order to demonstrate the ways a variety of playwrights comment on women’s non-normative relationships to the topics of marriage, sex, and violence.
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About Margaret Boyle
Reviews for Unruly Women
Barbara Mujica
Modern Philology vol 112:04:2015
‘Unruly Women deftly explores the relationships between historical recogidas and the fictional female protagonists of the comedia… It will be of interest to scholars and teachers of early modern theater, history, and women’s studies.’
Emily C. Francomano
Hispania vol 98:02:2015
‘Unruly Women provides a strong foundation from which to build a more nuanced understanding of the engendering of early modern women’s roles and behaviors in Spain. This brief volume makes its argument with great clarity; it will be useful to both graduate students and scholars of early modern Spanish cultural studies.’
Stacey Schlau
Renaissance Quarterly vol 68:02:2015
"Margaret Boyle has produced a compelling study, based on the ingenious juxtaposition of the rise of custodial institutions and their interconnections with a thriving professional theater business that nurtured many "unruly" female performers, entrepreneurs, and audience members."
Elizabeth R. Wright
Seventeenth Century News, Volume 73:3&4, Fall/Winter 2015
‘One of the latest in a series of excellent University of Toronto Press books on the social and cultural context of early modern Spanish Literature… Boyle’s work is well grounded in the body of recent scholarship that emphasizes women’s active and formative role in early modern Spanish Society.’
Jodi Campbell
Left History vol 20:01:2016
‘Unruly Women offers a rich discussion of gendered rehabilitative practices and their performative dimensions, both on and off the stage in early modern Spain.’
Jane Bitomsky
Parergon vol 33:01:2016