Antigone's Example
Description
This book investigates early modern women's interventions in politics and the public sphere during times of civil war in England and France. Taking this transcultural and comparative perspective, and the period designation "early modern" expansively, Antigone's Example identifies a canon of women's civil-war writings; it elucidates their historical specificity as well as the transhistorical context of civil war, a context which, it argues, enabled women's participation in political thought.
2023 Book Award (Scholarly Monographs), Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender.
Mihoko Suzuki's Antigone's Example is an extraordinary account of political writings by women in France and England from the late Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century. Crossing the usual boundaries of periodization and nation, Suzuki explores the continuities in how early modern women responded to civil war, as extreme situations enabled and compelled women to write in defense of their families and communities and thus gain a voice in a public sphere that normally excluded them. Whatever side they were on, they presented themselves as mediators, much like Antigone, whose example, Suzuki writes, represented a model of female defiance and political agency. This insightful book opens up fresh perspectives on canonical writings and brings relatively neglected writings to the reader's attention, showing the importance of transnational study of early modern women.
Recipient of 2023 Book Award, Society for the Study of Women and Gender
Reviews / Votes
"This ambitious and sweeping book is valuable to scholars for its methodology, which yields original insights about the intricacies of women's political engagement in times of civil war across genres, allegiances, space, and time. Suzuki's innovative intertextual analysis of French and English writers-with copious footnotes and numerous illustrations-provides inspiration and new directions for scholars seeking to expand their work beyond a single period, nation, or woman writer." (Kristina Lucenko, Early Modern Women Journal, Vol. 20 (1), 2025)
"Antigone's Example provides an elegantly argued case for the merits of placing any body of writing within multiple broad contexts rather than limiting these by geography, genre, or gender. The civil wars and revolutions of the early modern period provided no woman with citizenship, but this did not stop them from entering the political arena in creative ways, with an eye across borders and toward both the past and future." (Merry Wiesner- Hanks, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Vol. 23 (3-4), 2023)
"This impressive book persuasively establishes the international political perspectives of early modern women writers and shows what can be gained by cross-cultural analysis of their lives and works." (Martine van Elk, Modern Language Review, Vol. 119 (1), January, 2024)
"Among its many contributions, I believe Antigone's Example serves as a model for those who wish to engage with the history of women's political writings. It would also be particularly useful for instructors who wish to include women in their courses related to the history of political thought. Suzuki's work shows us that women's contributions extend well beyond feminism ... ." (Mary Jo MacDonald, Politics & Gender, July 4, 2023) "Mihoko Suzuki's Antigone's Example: Early Modern Women's Political Writing in Times of Civil War from Christine de Pizan to Helen Maria Williamsis the first sustained transcultural study of women's political counsel in France and Britain from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. . Suzuki offers an impressive, capacious, and fascinating analysis of their important roles in defining and developing British and French political theory over a long and turbulent period." (Catharine Gray, TSWL Tulsa Studies in Women's Literatur, Vol. 42 (2), 2023) "Antigone's Example is an intellectually ambitious book . . In this theoretically rich and highly documented opus, straddling two national cultures, Suzuki gives her readers the necessary keys to understand complex and varied works, which should be read as major contributions to the European history of political thought." (Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 27, (5), 2023)More details
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