Homoerotic Desire and Renaissance Lyric Verse

Yearling, Rebecca

doi:10.1353/sel.2013.0007

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Yearling (2013) has asserted that within the crossdressing comedies "Shakespeare tantalizes his spectators with suggestions of same-sex love and sexual attraction, both between men and between women."(p. 64)…”

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Gender, power and disguise: cross dressing women within Shakespeare and Spenser

Mellor¹

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Gender, Power and Disguise: Cross-Dressing Women within Shakespeare and Spenser. Master of Arts in English, 2018. By engaging with Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield's (1994) consolidation, subversion and containment theory this dissertation explores how Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare incorporated female crossdressers within their works to present fictional women as threatening to established Elizabethan gender codes. Transgressive female characters in these works demand particular attention given the insecure variant of patriarchy that had emerged out of Elizabeth I's reign, and the insistent iconography of female power and constancy that was encouraged throughout the final decades of her rule. This dissertation argues that Spenser and Shakespeare presented crossdressing women as figures who had the potential to subvert established notions of patriarchy during the final decade of the sixteenth-century. Shakespeare and Spenser chose to present these female protagonists, during the latter portion of Elizabeth I's reign, as threatening in three distinguishable ways. First, crossdressers conceal their female form beneath male attire, proving both fraudulent in nature and capable of usurping male authority by falsifying their female subordinated gender. Secondly, they evidence a disobedience to masculine authority by using marriage vows and rings to gain advantage over prospective romantic partners while disguised. Thirdly, Elizabethans would have regarded the depiction of women who incorporated a combatant temperament, by wearing weaponry or physically fighting with men, as distinctly provocative. This dissertation examines these figures of transgressive femininity within both the poetic and staged genres. In Spenser's epic poem, The Faerie Queene, the warrior maiden Britomart consistently reinforces accepted gender stereotypes, wilfully containing her own transgressions. Contrastingly, Shakespeare's crossdressing women display an array of subversive potential in both their original intentions to defy male authority and their varied abilities to follow through with their intended deceit. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Transgressing Borders and Authority 1 1 Duplicity: 'Conceal Myself What I Am' 6 2 Marriage: Exchanging and Keeping Promises 3 The Significance of 'This Ring' 4 Testing her Mettle: Prosthetic Weaponry and Walking the Walk 5 Combatant Encounters: Bodily and Animalistic Metaphors Conclusion Bibliography I would like to express a profound gratitude to my academic supervisors, Prof. Lisa Hopkins and Dr. Colm MacCrossan, for their unwavering guidance this year. Lisa's expertise and unfathomable insight has been invaluable to me throughout both my undergraduate and postgraduate endeavours. Likewise, Colm's critical enthusiasm and steadfast support has been of immense value to me. I must also express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Susan McPherson, who unexpectedly suggested that I undertake this degree in the first place. Without her encouragement, I would not be here today. I also wish to ex...

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confidence: 99%