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Early Modern Queens on Screen: Victors, Victims, Villains, Virgins, and Viragoes

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Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers

Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

Abstract

This chapter evaluates a large corpus of films and television series that feature the queens of the early modern period, arguing that these productions effectively categorize these women into five typologies: Victors, Victims, Villains, Virgins, and Viragoes. Examples are drawn from works across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that demonstrate the five typologies, from the classic films of 1930s Hollywood, such as Katherine Hepburn’s starring role in Mary of Scotland to recent television series from Spain’s RTVE network on Isabel I and her descendants. The chapter ultimately argues that these typologies reflect modern society and gender constructs rather than the realities of early modern queenship.

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Works Cited

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

    Elena Woodacre

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  1. Elena Woodacre
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA

    Janice North

  2. Department of History, University of Winchester, Winchester, United Kingdom

    Karl C. Alvestad

  3. Department of History, University of Winchester, Winchester, United Kingdom

    Elena Woodacre

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Woodacre, E. (2018). Early Modern Queens on Screen: Victors, Victims, Villains, Virgins, and Viragoes. In: North, J., Alvestad, K., Woodacre, E. (eds) Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers . Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68771-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68771-1_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68770-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68771-1

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

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