Trollers and Dreamers: Defining the Citizen-Subject in Sixteenth-Century Cheap Print

Author: Shrank, Cathy

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 38, Numbers 1-2, 1 July 2008 , pp. 102-118(17)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

This chapter examines two contentions conducted through broadsides and short pamphlets: the first, between Thomas Smyth, William Gray, and others in 1540 reacts to the fall of Cromwell and debates the religious identity of a loyal subject; the second, dating from around 1551, between Thomas Churchyard, Thomas Camell, and others, argues about who can critique authority. These controversies reveal how Tudor authors utilized cheap print to engage with contemporary politics; in doing so, these writers not only comment on matters of state, they also define their role, as citizens and subjects, within the polity whose affairs they feel able and compelled to discuss.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Sheffield

Publication date: 2008-07-01

More about this publication?

A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.