Secrecy and Surveillance in Medieval and Early Modern England

Book excerpt: This volume explores practices of secrecy and surveillance in medieval and early modern England. The ten contributions by Swiss and international scholars (including Paul Strohm, Sylvia Tomasch, Karma Lochrie, and Richard Wilson) address in particular the intersections of secrecy and surveillance with gender and identity, public and private spheres, religious practices, and power structures. Covering a wide range of English literary texts from Old English riddles to medieval romances, the Book of Margery Kempe, and the plays and poems of Shakespeare, these essays seek to contribute to our understanding of the practices of secrecy, exclusion, and disclosure as well as to the much-needed historicisation of Surveillance Studies called for in the opening article by Sylvia Tomasch. ---