Twenty-First Century Versions of Early Tudor Women Writers

Twenty-first century versions of early Tudor women writers appear in many scholarly editions, articles, and monographs and in numerous popular histories, novels, television series, films, blogs, and websites. This entry focuses on representations of the lives and texts of Margaret Beaufort, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr, Anne Askew, and Jane Grey. Scholarly work includes the recovery and editing of their texts, close analysis of their reading and writing practices, consideration of non-canonical genres like letters, prayers, diaries, monuments, translations, and paratexts, and study of specific social, cultural, political, economic, and religious contexts. Observing different generic conventions and directed at a general audience, fiction about these writers characteristically downplays or ignores their intellectual accomplishments, drawing rather on enduring stereotypes, embellishments, and myths, particularly about Henry VIII’s queens. Romance novels and television and film costume dramas present invented scenes of physical, emotional, and sexual conflict, often matching beautiful, spirited protagonists against powerful patriarchs, but ultimately affirming traditional patriarchal values. In popular genres, the religious faith central to these writers’ accomplishments tends to become incidental or subordinate to secular interests designed to give them greater contemporary relevance. Studying twenty-first century versions of these Tudor writers clarifies how specific historical figures contribute to contemporary culture and how current assumptions may shape the construction of the past.