Voice to Ease Her "troubled Sense" : Innovation and Exploration Through the Female Sonneteer in Mary Wroth's Sonnet Sequence, Pamphilia to Amphilanthu
Abstract
The depth and range of emotions in Lady Mary Wroth's sonnet sequence, Pamphllla to Amphllanthus, intrigued me from the first moment I encountered her poetry in a graduate seminar at Oklahoma State University. As I began to consider her work as part of the poetic tradition of Renaissance sonnet sequences, such as her uncle Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, I was disheartened to reallze that many critics have focused on Wroth's poetry merely to search for interesting autobiographical details. Other critics have become enthralled with the seventeenth-century scandal which surrounded the publication of her work, diverting attention away from the capabilities of a female poet attempting to respond creatively and critically under unquestionable societal constraints. Understanding that Wroth wrote in a social and literary climate that insisted upon silence, obedience, and chastity as the definitive qualities of a virtuous woman, I began to question what difference the female voice of Pamphilla makes to Pamphilla to Amphllanthus--a sequence which is part of a male-dominated tradition. Reading the poems as the self-exploration of the sonnet speaker, I encountered ambivalence in the voice due to the conflict between the powerful role of the sonneteer and the limitations of a seventeenth-century woman. This study does not try to prove that Lady Mary Wroth wrote very early feminist poetry; it does, however, aim to present Wroth's innovations through a discussion of Pamphilla' s various responses to her role as female sonneteer.
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- OSU Theses [15752]