Female Transgression in Early Modern Britain

Presenting a broad spectrum of reflections on the subject of female transgression in early modern Britain this volume proposes a richly productive dialogue between literary and historical approaches to the topic. The essays presented here cover a range of 'transgressive' women: daughters witches prostitutes thieves; mothers/wives/murderers; violence in NW England; violence in Scotland; single mothers; women as (sexual) partners in crime. Contributions illustrate the dynamic relation between fiction and fact that informs literary and socio-historical analysis alike exploring female transgression as a process not of crossing fixed boundaries but of negotiating the epistemological space between representation and documentation.