Twins and Duality in Early Modern Representation

Twins and Duality in Early Modern Representation investigates the complex and paradoxical discourse surrounding concepts of twinship in texts written in the early modern period, where twins were considered both miraculous and uncanny.

The book explores midwifery manuals, physicians’ texts, and pamphlets, as well as drama, poetry, creative prose, and ballads, and traces how both cultural beliefs and medical practice affect the depiction of twins in literary representation. Beliefs concerning the conception of twins also bring into consideration contemporary gender politics, with notions like superfetation revealing anxiety surrounding women’s rumoured sexual incontinence, biological mystery, and fidelity, and thereby material issues of inheritance. This innovative research is central to providing an analysis of the intellectual and popular conceptions centred on twins in the period and argues that discourses of twinship are ultimately utilised to interrogate dominant cultural concerns including identity, selfhood, sexuality, legal rights, and gender politics.

Bringing important insight into early modern literature and culture, this book will be invaluable for students and scholars in the fields of early modern literary studies, gender, history of obstetrics, medical humanities, and classical reception.