ABSTRACT

This chapter proposes the paradox at the heart of the discursive creation of the figure of the prostitute in early modern England and its consequences for real-life prostitutes. Given the ubiquity of prostitution, it is not surprising that figure of the prostitute recurs in discourse, both in official texts like laws and edicts and in popular literature such as drama and pamphlets. The chapter analyzes the devices used by official discourses to construct the prostitute as Other. Chief among these devices were negative definitions, a phenomenon facilitated by the fact that early modern society was obsessed with categories and types. The figure of the prostitute enabled the authorities to attack the Catholic Church so as to reinforce the legitimacy of the Protestant dogma. Before the Reformation, the Catholic clergy were recurrently criticized for their supposedly debauched mores, and the Catholic religion was commonly regarded as venal and salacious. Figure of the prostitute thus stands out as a hypocritical social construction.