Politics, Transgression, and Representation at the Court of Charles II

Edited by Julia Marciari Alexander and Catharine MacLeod

Essays by Kevin Sharpe, Tim Harris, Cheila O'Connell, Catherine MacLeod, Julia Marciari Alexander, Steven N. Zwicker, Susan Shifrin, Rachel Weil, Andrew R. Walkling, and Joseph Roach

Published by the Yale Center for British Art and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in association with Yale University Press

About 288 pages, 10 x 7 inches, 60 illustrations, cloth, ISBN 9780300116564

Publication date: February 28, 2008

Description

The return of Charles II to the English throne after eleven years of Interregnum heralded the beginning of a new era in which the court was characterized by the licentious behavior of the new king. Edited by the authors of the critically acclaimed Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II (2001), this book brings together ten distinguished scholars of history, literature, music, theatre, and art to explore the political and cultural implications of the court’s transgressive new character. With particular reference to the perception and representation of women, it offers a varied examination of topics including popular prints and broadsheets, court masque, poetry and painted portraits, and the operation of women in the political sphere.