This book re-evaluates the nature of Elizabethan politics and
Elizabeth''s queenship in late sixteenth-century England, Wales and
Ireland. Natalie Mears shows that Elizabeth took an active role in
policy-making and suggests that Elizabethan politics has to be
perceived in terms of personal relations between the queen and her
advisers rather than of the hegemony of the privy council. She
challenges current perceptions of political debate at court as
restricted and integrates recent research on court drama and
religious ritual into the wider context of political debate.
Finally, providing a survey of the nature of political debate
outside the court, Dr Mears challenges seminal work by Jürgen
Habermas, as well as of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
historians, by showing that a ''public sphere'' existed in late
sixteenth-century England, Wales and Ireland. In doing so, she
re-evaluates how sociologists and historians have, and should,
conceptualize the ''public sphere''.
目錄:
1. Elizabethan court politics and the public sphere
2. Elizabeth I and the politics of intimacy
3. Gender and consultation
4. News and political debate at the Elizabethan court
5. The circulation of news in the Elizabethan realms
6. The Elizabethan public sphere
7. Perceptions of Elizabeth and her queenship in public
discourse
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Index.