Edinburgh Research Archive logo

Edinburgh Research Archive

University of Edinburgh homecrest
View Item 
  •   ERA Home
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, School of
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection
  • View Item
  •   ERA Home
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, School of
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Manifestation: masculinity on the female body in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

View/Open
Pinguelo2022.pdf (1.344Mb)
Date
17/01/2023
Author
Pinguelo, Hannah DeWitt
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
At the end of Michael Shapiro’s highly influential Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage (1996) was an appendix comprising a “Chronological list of Plays with Heroines in Male Disguise” from 1570-1642 (221). This thesis focuses on the plays written in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in order to establish the development of a subgenre of female to male crossdressing and examines the expectations for female crossdressing characters and gender expression. Organized by authorial groupings and then an overview of outlying plays, the thesis seeks to contextualize heroine crossdressing as a trope contributed to by a substantial cohort of playwrights. Although Shakespearean drama is discussed first, this is not to prioritize his work but rather seeks to demonstrate how conservative his use of such tropes is in comparison with later playwrights. His plays provide evidence of an Elizabethan adherence to structure and limitations for female crossdressers that are later developed. Thomas Heywood’s plays exemplify the growing attention and interest in heroine crossdressing. He features a character who is minor and rudimentary; another who is derivative but reflects newly popularized archetypes; while his most detailed is an epic character who serves as the main protagonist of her narrative. Plays by Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, and John Webster are at the heart of the new genre and testify to an established public desire for female crossdressing characters onstage, while their characters begin to evolve the trope and introduce diverse new traits, relationship arcs, and resolutions. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, in collaboration with Phillip Massinger, abandon the restrictions of Elizabethan standards in exchange for increasingly transgressive innovations. Over the course of eight plays, they become masters in creating crossdressing heroines. Finally, an evaluation of individual dramas written by several authors establishes how the creation, growth, and scope of such heroine crossdressers reveals evolving expectations for gendered performances in early modern England.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1842/39720

http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/2969
Collections
  • Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page

 

 

All of ERACommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisorsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsPublication TypeSponsorSupervisors
LoginRegister

Library & University Collections HomeUniversity of Edinburgh Information Services Home
Privacy & Cookies | Takedown Policy | Accessibility | Contact
Privacy & Cookies
Takedown Policy
Accessibility
Contact
feed RSS Feeds

RSS Feed not available for this page