Aside from a few famous queens, warriors and religious leaders, little information is available about the many extraordinary women of the medieval and Renaissance world. This resource brings together engagingly written biographical profiles of 70 women, most of whom are unsung, but all of whom are remarkable for their courage, initiative, and accomplishments in a world where the conventional wisdom was for women to be chaste, silent, and obedient. The women profiled here represent 18 countries and excelled in 19 fields of endeavor. They include artists, builders, mystics, political leaders, religious activists, diarists and dramatists, poets and writers, and scholars.
In a world where women were taught to prefer silence to speech and self-expression, and where an assertive woman was considered an abnormal one, these women did speak out and assert themselves. This often required the courage to refute the moral dictates of the time, to put themselves at risk for their beliefs, or to take political power for themselves. Some women succeeded and some were destroyed in their efforts. These profiles, prepared by specialists in women's history, are based on the latest scholarship and offer a wealth of information not available elsewhere. Each profile features biographical data, an engagingly written biographical essay that discusses the woman's life in the context of her society, and bibliographic sources for further research. This work makes the lives of these extraordinary women accessible to the wide audience of students and interested readers and is ideal for student research.

Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World: A Biographical Dictionary

Levin, Carole

Carney, Jo

Kennedy, Gwynne

Barrett-Graves, Debra

Witham, Stephanie

Spellman, W.M.

Biographies & Memoirs

Greenwood

The Reign of Elizabeth 1

The reign of Elizabeth I was marked by change: England finally became a protestant nation, and England's relations with her neighbours were also changing, in part because of religious controversies. Elizabeth's reign was also significant in terms of changing gender expectations, and in terms of attitudes towards those considered different. While a woman ruled, others, often at the bottom of the social scale, were condemned as witches. Levin evaluates Elizabeth and the significance of her reign both in the context of her age and our own, examining the increasing cultural diversity of Elizabethan England and the impact of the reign of an unmarried queen on gender expectations, as well as exploring the more traditional themes of religion, foreign policy, plots and conspiracies. Levin's fresh perspective will be welcomed by students of this exceptional reign.

Historical

Red Globe Press

The reign of Elizabeth I was marked by political, religious and social change. Carole Levin evaluates Elizabeth and the significance of her reign both in the context of her age and our own, examining the increasing cultural diversity of Elizabethan Engla

This interdisciplinary collection by historians, cultural critics and literary scholars examines a variety of the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the English Renaissance and beyond, forces that contributed to creating a wealth of artistic, literary and historical impressions of Elizabeth, her court, and the time period named after her, the Elizabethan age. Articles in the collection discuss Elizabeths' relationships, investigate the advice given her, explore connections between her court and the arts, and consider the role of Elizabeth's court in the political life of the nation. Some of the ways Elizabeth was understood and represented demonstrate society's fears and ambivalence about early modern women in power, while others celebrate her successes as England's first and only unmarried queen regnant. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students in a wide range of disciplines, including literary, cultural, historical and women's studies, as well as those interested in the life and times of Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth I: Always Her Own Free Woman

Carney, Jo Eldridge

Humor & Entertainment

Routledge

Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds: National and Transnational Identities in the Elizabethan Age

In Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds, Carole Levin and John Watkins focus on the relationship between the London-based professional theater preeminently associated with William Shakespeare and an unprecedented European experience of geographic, social, and intellectual mobility. Shakespeare's plays bear the marks of exile and exploration, rural depopulation, urban expansion, and shifting mercantile and diplomatic configurations. He fills his plays with characters testing the limits of personal identity: foreigners, usurpers, outcasts, outlaws, scolds, shrews, witches, mercenaries, and cross-dressers.Through parallel discussions of Henry VI, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice, Levin and Watkins argue that Shakespeare's centrality to English national consciousness is inseparable from his creation of the foreign as a category asserting dangerous affinities between England's internal minorities and its competitors within an increasingly fraught European mercantile system.As a women's historian, Levin is particularly interested in Shakespeare's responses to marginalized sectors of English society. As a scholar of English, Italian Studies, and Medieval Studies, Watkins situates Shakespeare in the context of broadly European historical movements. Together Levin and Watkins narrate the emergence of the foreign as portable category that might be applied both to "strangers" from other countries and to native-born English men and women, such as religious dissidents, who resisted conformity to an increasingly narrow sense of English identity. Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds will appeal to historians, literary scholars, theater specialists, and anyone interested in Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Age.

Literature & Fiction

Watkins, John

Dramas & Plays

Cornell University Press

In Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds, Carole Levin and John Watkins focus on the relationship between the London-based professional theater preeminently associated with William Shakespeare and an unprecedented European experience of geographic, social, and intellectual mobility. Shakespeare's plays bear the marks of exile and exploration, rural depopulation, urban expansion, and shifting mercantile and diplomatic configurations. He fills his plays with characters testing the limits of personal identity: foreigners, usurpers, outcasts, outlaws, scolds, shrews, witches, mercenaries, and cross-dressers. 
Through parallel discussions of Henry VI, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice, Levin and Watkins argue that Shakespeare's centrality to English national consciousness is inseparable from his creation of the foreign as a category asserting dangerous affinities between England's internal minorities and its competitors within an increasingly fraught European mercantile system. As a women's historian, Levin is particularly interested in Shakespeare's responses to marginalized sectors of English society. As a scholar of English, Italian Studies, and Medieval Studies, Watkins situates Shakespeare in the context of broadly European historical movements. 
Together Levin and Watkins narrate the emergence of the foreign as portable category that might be applied both to "strangers" from other countries and to native-born English men and women, such as religious dissidents, who resisted conformity to an increasingly narrow sense of English identity. Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds will appeal to historians, literary scholars, theater specialists, and anyone interested in Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Age.

The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (New Cultural Studies)

Chosen as one of the ten best academic books of the 1990s by Lingua Franca readers
"I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king."—Elizabeth I
Whether this sentence is an accurate transcription of Elizabeth's speech at Tilbury in 1588, it does characterize some of the struggles, contradictions, and cultural anxieties that dominated the collective consciousness of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. In The Heart and Stomach of a King, Carole Levin explores contemporary representations of the unmarried, childless Elizabeth and focuses on the ways in which members of her court, foreign ambassadors, and a motley—and sometimes delusional—collection of subjects responded to her. Throughout, Levin's purpose is to explore how gender constructions, role expectations, and beliefs about sexuality influenced both Elizabeth's self-presentation and others' perceptions of her as a female, and Protestant, ruler.

University of Pennsylvania Press

In her famous speech to rouse the English troops staking out Tilbury at the mouth of the Thames during the Spanish Armada's campaign, Queen Elizabeth I is said to have proclaimed, "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king." Whether or not the transcription is accurate, the persistent attribution of this provocative statement to England's most studied and celebrated queen illustrates some of the contradictions and cultural anxieties that dominated the collective consciousness of England during a reign that lasted from 1558 until 1603.
In The Heart and Stomach of a King, Carole Levin explores the myriad ways the unmarried, childless Elizabeth represented herself and the ways members of her court, foreign ambassadors, and subjects represented and responded to her as a public figure. In particular, Levin interrogates the gender constructions, role expectations, and beliefs about sexuality that influenced her public persona and the way she was perceived as a female Protestant ruler. With a new introduction that situates the book within the emerging genre of cultural biography, the second edition of The Heart and Stomach of a King offers insight into the continued fascination with Elizabeth I and her reign.

The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power

History

Europe

The predominant cultural expectation for women in medieval and Renaissance Europe, as propagated and institutionalized by both the literate aristocracy and the medieval Church, was quite straightforward. The ideal woman was to be chaste and obedient, busy in the home and silent outside it. The Church provided two models for women: Mary, the Mother of God, and Eve, the temptress. The reality of women's lives, however, was richer and much more ambiguous. Women of all classes worked not only in the home but outside it as well. The further one reads the text of the time, the less uniformity one finds about the actual role of women.Examining specific literary historical, and theological text, the essays in Ambiguous Realities illustrates a number of important issues about women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the changes in attitude toward women, the role and status on women, the dichotomy between the public and private spheres, the prescriptions for women's behavior and the image of the ideal woman, and the difference between the perceived and the actual audience of medieval and Renaissance writers.

Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

History & Criticism

Wayne State U. Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Levin, Carole. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Levin, Carole

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Levin, Carole. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World: A Biographical Dictionary

The Reign of Elizabeth 1

The Reign of Elizabeth 1

Elizabeth I: Always Her Own Free Woman

Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds: National and Transnational Identities in the Elizabethan Age

Shakespeare's Foreign Worlds: National and Transnational Identities in the Elizabethan Age

The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (New Cultural Studies)

The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power

The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (New Cultural Studies)

Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance