This paper will engage with the twofold scope of the conference: It will look at how identity is envisioned in Elizabethan prose fiction and will argue that notions of gender, rank and national belonging are haunted by spectres of transubstantiation. Frequently, the narratives envision a clandestine, inner transformation that is conceptually indebted to the discarded Catholic ritual. In their disguise scenarios, the narratives raise the question how a personal ‘substance’ can be detected under false ‘accidents’ and when and how this substance can change. Further, they creatively redeploy the Catholic doctrine of ‘Real Presence’ for their revelation scenarios.  At the same time, the paper will address the recent turn to religion in early modern studies and will propose that it offers a productive and as yet fairly uncommon approach to early modern notions of selfhood.

—Dr. Christina Wald, University of Augsburg, Germany