Early Modern Warrior Women: "Heart and Stomach of a King!"

Catalog description

In her Tilbury speech, Queen Elizabeth I said, “I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.” What is a warrior woman? What are her origins or her characteristics? How do warrior women stand apart from the image of what society deems socially acceptable for a woman to be and behave? This course will trace the origins of the Euro-American figure of the warrior women from the Amazons of antiquity through today’s Wonder Woman, with particular focus on the early modern period. The early modern period absorbed the figure of the amazon woman into the Western literary canon, but this period also simultaneously saw a rise of women in leadership positions, and as writers. While the sword was a weapon in the “battlefield,” the pen and the paint brush were weapons, too: Where and how did warrior women wield them? By examining warrior women in history, literature, art, media, and pop culture, this interdisciplinary course reflects on the changes and challenges of gender with regards to these figures and how they reflect the social, political, and cultural climates of their time.