Ebook: Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism in Early Modern English Texts

Here literary scholars and historians focus on polemical, political and literary texts that dramatize the conflicts between Catholic and anti-Catholic discourses in early modern England. We are invited to re-examine the ideological biases of an era in which English Protestant identity emerged in the context of opposition to English and international Catholicism. The topics covered include the marginalization of recusant women and Jesuits, the use of anti-Catholic rhetoric within Protestant sectarian conflict, the gendering of religious representation, conversion and apostasy, and the gap between official anti-Catholic legislation and social practices. Texts discussed include autobiography, dramas, the martyrdom account, prose satire, religious polemics, and philosophical and narrative verse. Writers examined include canonical authors such as John Donne, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Campion and John Milton, and less-known writers such as Richard Carpenter, John Mush, John Good and Elizabeth Cellier.