Memory and memorialization in the Psalmes of Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

Abstract

This article argues that early modern memory practices are intimately bound up with questions of subject formation, and that questions of gender and agency are central to debates over these practices, both within and beyond educational sites. Taking Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke as the example, it argues that rote-learning, copying, and memorization are key elements of the poetics of the Sidney Psalter, and that these functions have a very specific aim, namely, to create a literary monument, through stylistic, poetic, and theological allusions, to the powerfully authorizing figure of her brother, Sir Philip Sidney.