Playing Football with the Stars: Hester Pulter Rethinks the Metaphysical Astronomy Poem.
In several poems, seventeenth-century writer Hester Pulter depicts freedom as only possible after death; but in Poem 38, she claims her "fancies" allow her spirit to leave her gendered body until, she writes, "Methinks I play at football with the stars" (ll. 8-12). Depicting the Earth as a sphere, a...
| Publicado en: | Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 169 - 192 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Spring2020
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=149357463&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 149357463 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15310485 DBLW jtl: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies issn: 15310485 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2020 vid: 20 iid: 2 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 149357463 10.1353/jem.2020.0014 ppf: 169 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 6.2MB tig: atl: Playing Football with the Stars: Hester Pulter Rethinks the Metaphysical Astronomy Poem. aug: au: BURKE, VICTORIA E. su: Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, ca. 1624-1674 Kicking (Football) Football Astronomy Poetry (Literary form) Poets sug: subj: Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, ca. 1624-1674 Kicking (Football) Football Astronomy Poetry (Literary form) Poets ab: In several poems, seventeenth-century writer Hester Pulter depicts freedom as only possible after death; but in Poem 38, she claims her "fancies" allow her spirit to leave her gendered body until, she writes, "Methinks I play at football with the stars" (ll. 8-12). Depicting the Earth as a sphere, a ball, and even a football is not uncommon for writers of the day, but Pulter's image makes us rethink the significance of what we might call the astronomy poem and its possible relationship with proto-feminist protest poetry. Is her speaker kicking the football that is the Earth alongside the personified stars or planets? For Pulter's speaker to join those celestial women suggests a shaking off of her suffering, maternal body, but also reconfigures her body in space, on a cosmic scale. This article argues that female poets like Pulter, Anne Southwell, and Margaret Cavendish use metaphysical conceits in astronomy poems to give their female speakers temporary power over their environment. Pulter, however, fuses this fantasized control to a violent sport that women were not depicted as playing during this period, offering a proto-feminist statement about her immobility on Earth. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2020 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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