“Whereunto I made them no answer, but smiled;” Textual and Ironic Authority in Anne Askew’s Examinations

Abstract

This essay examines the ways in which Anne Askew constructs an authoritative position for herself in her Examinations through the rhetorical placement of her smile. I focus specifically on how her smile acts as a response to her examiner’s questions and reverses the role of power from the male hierarchical position of authority to the subordinate female voice of Early Modern literature. Askew’s smile subverts the expectation of torture and imprisonment being a form of control over the body through her extensive biblical knowledge, use of Socratic irony as a form of response, and ability to manipulate her inferior hierarchical position as a woman and as an individual under interrogation. She carefully shifts the power dynamics throughout the text, using the smile to critique preconceived notions of masculine authority and manipulating the reader’s perception of herself by securing an authoritative position over her examiners. By allowing her readership a privileged understanding of her interrogations through the recordings of her accounts, Askew’s complicated text reveals the value of broadening the sphere of what counts as researchable texts within English departments, allowing a space to study non-traditional literature of Early Modern female authorship.