Plenary II: Goods

Abstract: The Evidence of Fiction:
Women's Relationship to Goods in London City Drama

Presented by: Jean E. Howard, English, Columbia University

In this paper I examined the multiple ways in which women's relationship to goods is depicted in city plays stretching from The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) to Covent Garden (1633). The purpose was two-fold: to delineate established and emerging subject positions for women as depicted in these plays and to discuss the status of these fictional representations as evidence for historical claims.