Representations of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Culture

The volume explores Elizabeth I’s influence on English and European culture, in her time and in the decades following her death, through her own writing – manuscripts and literary and non-literary productions – as well as through the representation of contemporary and later writers. The contributors are codicologists, historians and literary critics, offering a variegated reading of the Queen and of her cultural inheritance. Elizabeth I united in herself a variety of roles: woman and queen, “mother” of her people and stern ruler, writer and recipient of some of the most important writings of the age. The very complexity of her personality requires a multidisciplinary approach. This is what has been achieved in this volume, in which a group of scholars of different fields and backgrounds, as well as sophisticated linguistic abilities, deal with the Queen and her (no less complex) afterlife. The book is thus a precious tool for anyone approaching Elizabeth as politician, poet, or literary persona.