Abstract
Dialogues with the Past: Vision, Voice and Writing in Lady Mary Wroht s Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621) is an analysis of the first published sonnet sequence by an Englishwoman. In this thesis I stage feminist theory of reading and writing in its double aspect as theory and practice, as a conceptual framework but also a more clinical event; a process of specific unfolding of particular discoveries and insights evolving when a persona reflects around her positions as woman, lover and writer.
The first chapter primarily focuses on the sequence s first section, and traces Pamphilia s entrance into the Petrarchan myth. I ask what effects her entrance has on her surroundings, on language and on herself. Even more important is the fact that her project disrupts the Petrarchan binary laws of the distant, objectified lady and the gazing male lover. When Pamphilia tries to acquire the subject position in her sonnets, how does she deal with her beloved s gazing eyes? I ask whether she succeeds in resisting his looks and thus in perceiving herself as the lover and the centre of her text.
The second chapter focuses on section two, where Pamphilia s voice emerges as clear and angry. I trace her numerous internal dialogues, identify the various addressees and explore how her tone, her words and her subjects of conversation vary according to whom she addresses. Whereas the male Petrarchan lover uses his voice to celebrate himself through addressing his image of the perfect beloved, I ask what role Pamphilia s imperfect, dangerous beloved plays in her poems.
The third chapter focuses on section three of the sequence: Crowne of Sonetts dedicated to Love . In this chapter I ask whether Pamphilia s withdrawal into the labyrinth is a forced or voluntary movement. Is the subject s stay in the labyrinth as confusing and frustrating as it might appear at first sight, or does Pamphilia succeed in revising the Petrarchan myth of love during her stay in the Crown?
Writing is an explicit theme in Pamphila to Amphilanthus. Chapter four traces the enabling twinship (Harvey 1992:6) between Pamphilia s desiring writing and Cixous theorising about an écriture feminine. Can radical, postmodern feminist theory describe the processes behind Wroth s and Pamphilia s composing and within the lines of their poems? This chapter focuses on the poems where Pamphilia explicitly deals with the theme of writing and asks what she achieves through her writing.