Ferron, A; (2015) "The ornament of a woman is silence:" Censorship, Mediation and Female Authorship in Tudor and Early Stuart England. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

Abstract

Drawing from Sophocles, the minister, Henry Smith wrote in 1591 that “the ornament of a woman is silence.”1 This dissertation explores how censorship, textual mediation, and societal expectations of female silence affected English women’s writing in the first half of the early modern period. The true nature of censorship is a hotly debated topic in pre-modern historiography and literary studies, with some scholars arguing that censorship was administered and controlled by a hegemonic government; and others taking a more revisionist approach by presenting press control as a sporadic institution targeting seditious material. While this study engages with all of this previous work, it takes a unique perspective by centering on the female author, since all of this work relies exclusively on the experiences and texts of men, who were subjected to less societal control than their female counterparts. The thesis not only gives women a voice in current historiography, but also demonstrates how female authors were touched by censorship and textual manipulation. It will ultimately show that while mediation could have damaging consequences for a woman’s text and reputation, it was also used to justify the female printed voice.

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