“Mothers of Glorious Actions”: Print Authorship as Queer Reproduction in Margaret Cavendish’s Dramas

This article argues that Margaret Cavendish reimagines print authorship as a form of queer reproduction that resists early modern England’s patriarchal reproductive logics. Drawing on Lee Edelman’s concept of reproductive futurism alongside Jack Halberstam and José Esteban Muñoz’s theories of queer futurity, I examine how Cavendish critiques the centrality of biological reproduction in defining women’s relationship to the future. Through comparative close readings of Bell in Campo and The Convent of Pleasure , I identify two distinct models of reproductive resistance: Bell in Campo embraces the enduring, future-oriented potential of print, while The Convent of Pleasure rejects futurity in favor of ephemeral pleasure. I conclude by examining Cavendish’s printed play volumes, arguing that their material traces of collaboration with her husband, William Cavendish, stage a negotiation of (pro)creative power. Ultimately, Cavendish’s anomalous print practices enact an autonomous, queer textual futurism—one that asserts her claim to futurity apart from both marriage and biological reproduction.