A forensic schema reading of sexual transgression in early modern drama and poetry

Hill, Wendy Jane 2025. A forensic schema reading of sexual transgression in early modern drama and poetry. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis takes a cognitive approach to reading sexual transgression in early modern literature by applying forensic schema theory, a model adapted from contemporary offender rehabilitation. Drawing on both recent research and my professional experience as a sex offender programme facilitator in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, the study repurposes therapeutic schema analysis for literary interpretation. It focuses on internalised cognitive patterns such as entitlement, sexual entitlement, victimisation, self-blame, worthlessness, and revenge. Schema theorists present these as structurally recognisable tendencies, patterns of meaning-making that may recur across periods while remaining shaped by their discursive and cultural contexts. The schema methodology centres on language as a site of cognitive patterning. Rather than analysing texts for historical or ideological content, it treats speech, dialogue, and narrative as real-time schema activations, drawing on techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy. By foregrounding linguistic expression, the model brackets historical causality, enabling presentist, schema-based readings grounded in textual form. Chapter One introduces schema theory and its relevance for literary analysis. Chapter Two outlines the theoretical framework, positioning presentism alongside debates on subjectivity, poststructuralism and postmodernism. Chapter Three analyses ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, tracing schemas of victimhood, misogyny and self-blame. Chapter Four examines The Witch of Edmonton and The Revenger’s Tragedy, focusing on linguistic patterns of victim, grievance, disparaging attitudes to women and sexual entitlement. Chapter Five turns to Women Beware Women, highlighting control, entitlement and misogyny. Chapter Six analyses The Rape of Lucrece as a site of reflexive schema enactment, particularly through the narrator’s framing of guilt, honour, and sexual violence. A final chapter considers the applied potential of forensic schema analysis, proposing psycho-educational tools that use early modern texts in rehabilitative contexts.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 May 2026
Last Modified:	20 May 2026 09:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/187005

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