Men in Women's Clothing: Anti-theatricality and Effeminization, 1579–1642 (Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture, Series Number 5) - Hardcover
In 1597 anti-theatricalist Stephen Gosson made the curious remark that theatre 'effeminized' the mind. Four years later Phillip Stubbes claimed that male actors who wore women's clothing could literally 'adulterate' male gender and fifty years after this in a tract which may have hastened the closing of the theatres, William Prynne described a man whom women's clothing had literally caused to 'degenerate' into a women. How can we account for such fears of effeminization and what did Renaissance playwrights do with such a legacy? Laura Levine examines the ways in which Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson addressed a generation's anxieties about gender and the stage and identifies the way the same 'magical thinking' informed documents we much more readily associate with extreme forms of cultural paranoia: documents dedicated to the extermination of witches.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description:
Laura Levine examines the ways in which Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson addressed a generation's anxieties about gender and the stage and identifies the way the same 'magical thinking' informed documents we much more readily associate with extreme forms of cultural paranoia.
Review:
'... cleverly brings together three areas of Renaissance anxiety: the longing for truth, a suspicious attitude to representation, and an identification of masculinity as performance.' The Times Literary Supplement
'... a work of critical brilliance.' New Theatre Quarterly
'... a work of critical brilliance.' New Theatre Quarterly
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherCambridge University Press
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0521455073
- ISBN 13 9780521455077
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages195
- Rating
(No Available Copies)
Search Books: Create a WantIf you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!
Create a Want