Introduction: Studies of Queens in Honor of Carole Levin

Abstract

The studies in this collection are a tribute to Carole Levin, a cultural historian and public intellectual whose work has been instrumental in fostering the study of queens. The scope of this book spans two centuries of queens and their afterlives, from the historical Elizabeth of York to the fantastical Empress from Cavendish’s Blazing World. We study these queens from so many angles and do so by freely crossing the boundaries of our various disciplines partly because of Carole’s fearless interdisciplinary scholarship, mentoring, and editing. The essays in this volume are grouped in the categories that mark some of Carole’s deepest research interests and the hallmarks of her methodology. Gender, marriage, religion, national identity, and diplomacy and, above all, the interplay between the historical and the literary have been at the center of Carole’s research projects as well as the studies of numerous scholars whom Carole mentored and encouraged or collaborated with. This volume brings all these facets of Carole’s interests to bear on her greatest love: queenship.