Imaginary Betrayals: Subjectivity and the Discourses of Treason in Early Modern England

by Karen Cunningham

In 1352 King Edward III had expanded the legal definition of treason to include the act of imagining the death of the king, opening up the category of "constructive" treason, in which even a subject's thoughts might become the basis for prosecution. By the sixteenth century, treason was perceived as an increasingly serious threat and policed with a new urgency. Referring to the extensive early modern literature on the subject of treason, Imaginary...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812236408
• ISBN13: 9780812236408
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"