About the lecture

In this module, we explore the importance of the family in Shakespeare’s time, focusing especially on: (i) the abandonment of Catholicism in England, and with it the abandonment of being single as the ideal state, (ii) the turn towards marriage and family as a holy state under Protestantism and (iii) The painting King Henry VIII and his Family and its depiction of a nuclear family between Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, and her son Edward and its different reality.

About the lecturer

Dr Emma Whipday is Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Newcastle University. Her research focuses on gender, family, power, and performance in early modern culture. Her most recent publications include Shakespeare’s Domestic Tragedies (2020), which was the co-winner of Shakespeare’s Globe Book Award 2020 and (as co-editor) Playing and Playgoing in Early Modern England (2022).