Body Narratives deals with the configurations in the literature and culture of sixteenth-century England. It investigates the relationship between disciplinary discourses of the human body and political body imagery in the texts of courtly writers like Spenser, Sidney, Ralegh and others, and traces its interdependence in their narratives of national identity, imperial expansion and gender difference.

Susanne Scholz is Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature at Paderborn University in Germany.

Acknowledgements A Note on the Text Introduction PART I: THE SUBJECT'S NEW BODY Well-tempered Bodies: Self-Government and Subjectivity Imagined Individuals: A Body of One's Own Gendered Objects: Sexualizing the Female Body PART II: THE BODY OF THE NATION Time, Space and the Body in the Narrative of the Nation Internal Imperialism: Domestic Loyalties Astraea's Substitute: Ireland and the Quest for National Unity Female Territories: Textualizing the Body of the Other Notes Index Bibliography Index