The Rise of Prison Literature in the Sixteenth Century

A fascinating account of writings penned by early modern prisoners, including Thomas More, Lady Jane Grey and Thomas Wyatt.

Ruth Ahnert (Author)

9781108438797, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 October 2017

232 pages, 8 b/w illus.
23 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.36 kg

'The inclusion of both Protestants and Catholics is a particular strength of the volume, as is Ahnert's use of various methodologies ranging from book history, network theory, phenomenology and philosophy - drawing on the work of Michel de Certeau - and close reading practices typically deployed by literary scholars … This is a strong first book and we can no doubt look forward to Ahnert's next project.' Victoria Van Hyning, British Catholic History

Examining works by some of the most famous prisoners from the early modern period including Thomas More, Lady Jane Grey and Thomas Wyatt, Ruth Ahnert presents the first major study of prison literature dating from this era. She argues that the English Reformation established the prison as an influential literary sphere. In the previous centuries we find only isolated examples of prison writings, but the religious and political instability of the Tudor reigns provided the conditions for the practice to thrive. This book shows the wide variety of genres that prisoners wrote, and it explores the subtle tricks they employed in order to appropriate the site of the prison for their own agendas. Ahnert charts the spreading influence of such works beyond the prison cell, tracing the textual communities they constructed, and the ways in which writings were smuggled out of prison and then disseminated through script and print.

Introduction
1. The sixteenth-century prison
2. Writing the prison
3. Prison communities
4. 'Frendes abrode'
5. Liberating the text?
Afterword
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]