1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458644203321

Autore

Conway Alison Margaret

Titolo

The Protestant whore : courtesan narrative and religious controversy in England, 1680-1750 / / Alison Conway

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2010

©2010

ISBN

1-4426-8691-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (312 p.)

Disciplina

823.409/353

Soggetti

English fiction - Early modern, 1500-1700 - History and criticism

English fiction - 18th century - History and criticism

Courtesans in literature

Protestantism in literature

Politics in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Invention of the Protestant Whore -- 2. 'No Neuters in Treason': Aphra Behn's Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister -- 3. The Secret History of Women's Political Desire, 1690-1714 -- 4. 'A House Divided': Defoe's Roxana and the Protestant Body Politic -- 5. A World of One's Own: Clarissa, Tom Jones, and Courtesan Authority -- Afterword -- Historical Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

After the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, Protestants worried that King Charles II might favour religious freedom for Roman Catholics, and many suspected that the king was unduly influenced by his Catholic mistresses. Nell Gwyn, actress and royal mistress, stood apart by virtue of her Protestant loyalty. In 1681, Gwyn, her carriage surrounded by an angry anti-Catholic mob, famously declared 'I am the protestant whore.' Her self-branding invites an investigation into the alignment between sex and politics during this period, and in this



study, Alison Conway relates courtesan narrative to cultural and religious anxieties.In new readings of canonical works by Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson, Conway argues that authors engaged the same questions about identity, nation, authority, literature, and politics as those pursued by Restoration polemicists. Her study reveals the recurring connection between sexual impropriety and religious heterodoxy in Restoration thought, and Nell Gwyn, writ large as the nation's Protestant Whore, is shown to be a significant figure of sexual, political, and religious controversy.