Workshop 22

22.
Woman of Power: Elizabeth I Then and Now

Organizers:

Margaret Hannay, English, Siena College
Carole Levin, History, University of Nebraska
Georgianna Ziegler, Librarian and English, Folger Shakespeare Library

Description:
There is no doubt that Elizabeth I was a powerful woman in her own day. In recent years, scholars such as Susan Frye and Carole Levin have suggested ways in which Elizabeth was implicated in the creation of her own public persona, but it is also a persona that has persisted into modern times. Much has been written about Elizabeth's relationship with the men of her court and its cultural circles, but we want to focus on her relationships with other women and to ask some of the following questions.

Did Elizabeth I empower women of her own time?
Did she function differently for those at court and those who knew her only from a distance or by reputation?
Did she function differently for women of various social classes?
Why and how does the figure of Elizabeth continue to empower today?
How do we—consciously or unconsciously—read our own feminist ideologies back into Elizabeth?

As we examine these questions and others, we will be dealing with issues of class, social position, and mobility for women that are central to the Second Plenary on Degree, Priority and Place.

Each of us will briefly (5 mins.) present a small number of items drawn from three groups of materials: women correspondents of Elizabeth; early modern women writers of the sixteenth or later seventeenth centuries who wrote about her; and modern representations of Elizabeth that package her as "CEO," "Greatest Leader of the Millenium," or a somewhat Machiavellian Cate Blanchette. In order to represent lower-class women whose voices are harder to find, we will use brief excerpts from two historical accounts from Elizabeth's own time. After each 5 min. segment, we will invite general questions and discussion on that body of material and on any related items participants have brought with them.

There is so much material on Elizabeth—both early and recent—that we will encourage each participant to bring a text or images to share, possibly based on material they have used or have thought about using in teaching. We hope that one segment of discussion will query the impact of recent media interest in Elizabeth on teaching early modern material, and will examine some of the ways in which our own cultural perceptions about women and power may direct the media. Past experience has shown us that the most successful workshops offer a few comments and questions as a jumping-off place for the participants to contribute their own ideas and questions into periods of discussion, subtly directed by the workshop organizers to keep it flowing and on target. We also want to leave time at the end to summarize basic points about issues of women and power in the early modern period and today that have evolved from the discussion, and that could stimulate pedagogy and scholarship.

List of Readings:

Correspondents with Elizabeth (about 5 pp):

Letter from Catherine de Medici, regarding re-establishment of good terms with Elizabeth after St. Bartholomew Massacre, 1573
Letter from Esperanza Malchi, a Jewess, about gifts to Elizabeth from the Sultana Mother of Turkey, 1599
Letter from Mary Sidney, on sending her son to court, 1601

Writings about Elizabeth by early modern women (about 12 pp):

Mary Sidney, poem “Dialogue in Praise of Astrea”, c1599
Mary Sidney, dedicatory poem to Elizabeth, “Even Now that Care”, 1599
Aemilia Lanyer, dedicatory poem in Salve Deus, 1611
Diana Primrose, dedicatory poem in A Chain of Pearl, 1630
Ann Bradstreet, poem “In Honour of . . . Queen Elizabeth” 1650
Bathsua Makin: brief comments on Elizabeth’s scholarship from . . . The Antient Education of Gentlewomen . . ., 1673
Brief accounts of common women approaching the queen (from contemporary male writers describing her entries and progresses)

Modern perceptions of Elizabeth (about 3 pp):

Introduction to Alan Axelrod, Elizabeth I: CEO
(If folks have time, they may want to view or re-view Elizabeth I with Cate Blanchett)

Suggested Readings:

Hannay, Margaret. Introductions to “Astrea,” and “Even now that care,” in The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, ed. Hannay and Kinnamon (OUP, 1998), I: 81-88; 92-101.
Hodgdon, Barbara. Chapter on the history of Queen Elizabeth in film in The Shakespeare Trade, U of Penna. P, 1998.
Levin, Carole. “Elizabeth: Romantic Film Heroine or Sixteenth-Century Queen.” in Perspectives Online, an online journal of the American Historical Assoc., April 1999. http://www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/1999/9904/9904FIL5.CFM
Weil, Rachel. “The Crown has Fallen to the Distaff: Gender and politics in the Age of Cathrine de Medici, 1560-1589,” Critical Matrix 1.4 (1985): 1-38.
Wilson, Elkin Calhoun. England’s Eliza. Harvard UP, 1939. (browse through for a survey of the various ways in which Elizabeth was historically represented)