Overview
Belief in spirits, demons and the occult was commonplace in the early
modern period, as was the view that these forces could be used to
manipulate nature and produce new knowledge. In this groundbreaking
study, Mary Floyd-Wilson explores these beliefs in relation to women and
scientific knowledge, arguing that the early modern English understood
their emotions and behavior to be influenced by hidden sympathies and
antipathies in the natural world. Focusing on Twelfth Night, Arden of
Faversham, A Warning for Fair Women, All's Well That Ends Well, The
Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi, she demonstrates how these plays
stage questions about whether women have privileged access to nature's
secrets and whether their bodies possess hidden occult qualities.
Discussing the relationship between scientific discourse and the occult,
she goes on to argue that as experiential evidence gained scientific
ground, women's presumed intimacy with nature's secrets was either
diminished or demonized.