Berkeley Undergraduate Journal

This research paper addresses the rapid rise of monstrous birth literature in Renaissance England and its intended influence on females. Strangely, immersing the public in printed ephemeral depictions of deformed children conflicts with contemporary philosophies about women reading. At a time when women were believed to physically absorb what they read, this literature risked infecting the minds of female readers with monstrous images that could manifest themselves in the women's bodies. This study seeks to explain this paradox by investigating the historical, iconographical, and religious influences of these monstrous birth broadsides and pamphlets.