Feigned Femininity: Theory of Mind and Gender Stereotypes on the Early Modern Stage

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The new field of 'cognitive literary criticism' - headlined by Lisa Zunshine's compellingly titled Why We Read Fiction (2006) - claims novels function by encouraging readers to guess at characters' mental states, satisfying their 'cognitive cravings' to practice Theory of Mind, or the ability to conceptualise other consciousnesses. More recently, scholars have begun to prioritise the interaction of minds within the text itself; as Alan Palmer notes in Social Minds in the Novel (2010), narratives revolve around individuals' drive to comprehend each other, occasional sparks of shared consciousness, and the consequences of interpretive failure. Applying these ideas to female representation in early modern drama, my project will consider whether playwrights not only capture inevitable misunderstandings, but interrogate the cultural tendency to flatten women's complexity into a taxonomy of prescribed roles. It will explore the mechanics of feminine stereotypes in Renaissance England and the significance of female characters who take up and exploit these preconceptions for their own ends. Spotlighting the heroines' attempts to deceive by aping expectations may offer a new perspective on the ongoing 'access problem' debate: to what extent can an individual's beliefs, emotions and intentions be read, or 'accessed', by others?