Space was not simply a passive backdrop to a social system that had structural origins elsewhere; it was vitally important for marking out and maintaining the hierarchy that sustained social and gender order in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Gender had a considerable influence on its use and organization; status and gender were displayed physically and spatially every moment of the day, from a person's place at table to the bed on which he or she slept, in places of work and recreation, in dress, gesture and modes of address.
Space was also the basis for the formation of gender identities which were constantly contested and restructured, as this book shows. Examining in turn domestic, social and sacred spaces and the spatial division of labour in gender construction, the author demonstrates how these could shift, and with them the position and power of women. She shows that the ideological assumption that all women are subject to all men is flawed, and exposes the limitations of interpretations which rely on the model and binary opposition of public/private, male/female, to describe gender relations and their changes across the period, thus offering a much more complex and picture than has hitherto been perceived. The book will be essential reading not just for historians of the family and of women, but for all those studying early modern social history.
AMANDA FLATHER is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Essex.
Reviews
[A] fine book [.] offering a closely focused and nuanced examination of the practice of patriarchy in a range of arenas in seventeenth-century England. A rich and subtle work of gender analysis and a lovely illustration of what can be garnered from the incidental detail of court depositions to flesh out the dynamics of early modern social interaction. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW Important reading for established scholars of the period. [...] As the study of gender matures, revisionist works such as this one redefine and broaden work being done in the field, bringing fresh nuances and complexities to the debate. RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY, Spring 2008 offers interesting information on how early modern men and women moved through their physical world, re-creating and challenging the moral and social expectations created by proscriptive literature. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES, July 2008, vol 47, no3 A fascinating book.[...]There is a wealth of detail here and the copious examples are testimony to Flather's tenacity in the archives. This is a welcome addition to the growing historiography of early modern spatial enquiry [and] will prove useful to specialists and students alike. PARERGON
Details
First Published: 17 May 2007
13 Digit ISBN: 9780861932863
Pages: 216
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: Royal Historical Society
Series:
Royal Historical Society Studies in History New SeriesSubject:
Modern HistoryBIC Class: HBLL
Details updated on 08 Sep 2010
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Prescriptive Space
- 3 Domestic Space
- 4 The Spatial Division of Labour
- 5 Social Space
- 6 Sacred Space
- 7 Conclusion
- 8 Bibliography
- 9 Index
