Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)

Synopsis

This volume examines and theorizes the oft-ignored phenomenon of male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry, inviting MTF crossdressing episodes to take a fuller place alongside instances of female-to-male crossdressing and boy actors’ crossdressing, which have long held the spotlight in early modern gender studies. The author argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are especially rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender—that crossdressers’ genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. Further, she argues that these relational representations show that the crossdresser and his/her allies often benefit financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation, a corrective to the dominant idea that queer gender has always been associated with shame, containment, and correction. By attending to these relational and beneficial representations of MTF crossdressers in early modern literature, the volume helps to make a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied and queer-feminine representations in our conversations about early modern gender and sexuality.

Copyright:

2016

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

196 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781317360858

Related ISBNs:

9781315668352, 9781138951211, 9780367210472

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis

Date of Addition:

10/18/22

Copyrighted By:

Taylor & Francis

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender, Social Studies, Drama, Plays and Theater, Language Arts

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.