Writing Under Tyranny English Literature and the Henrician Reformation

Spanning the boundaries between literature and history, Writing Under Tyranny charts the profound effects that Henry VIII's increasingly tyrannical regime had on the literary production of the early sixteenth century, and shows how English writers strove to mitigate, redirect, and finally resist oppressive royal demands. The result was the destruction of a number of venerable literary forms and the collapse of a literary culture that dominated the late-medieval period, but also the birth of many modes of writing now seen as characteristic of the English literary renaissance. Book jacket.

Greg Walker is Professor of Early-Modern Literature and Culture at the University of Leicester.