02320nam a22003618a 4500 CR9781139567541 UkCbUP 20180107143409.0 m|||||o||d|||||||| cr|||||||||||| 120802s2013||||enk s ||1 0|eng|d 9781139567541 (ebook) 9781107036321 (hardback) 9781107559370 (paperback) UkCbUP UkCbUP rda PR2965 .F56 2013 822.3/3 23 Floyd-Wilson, Mary, author. Occult Knowledge, Science, and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage / [electronic resource] Mary Floyd-Wilson. Occult Knowledge, Science, & Gender on the Shakespearean Stage Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013. 1 online resource (250 pages) : digital, PDF file(s). text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Oct 2015). 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. Occultism in literature Literature and spiritualism Women in literature Print version: 9781107036321 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139567541 Cambridge Books Online 236325 236325