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Androgyny, Mimesis, and the Marriage of the Boy Heroine on the English Renaissance Stage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Phyllis Rackin
Phyllis Rackin*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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Abstract

Changing conceptions of gender and of theatrical mimesis can be seen in the representations of transvestite heroines on the English Renaissance stage. This paper compares their roles in five comedies: Lyly's Gallathea; Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night; and Jonson's Epicoene. In each play the plot centers on marriage, the bride-to-be wears transvestite disguise, and the disguise plays a crucial role in the plot. In all five plays, the sexual ambiguity of the boy heroine is associated with the problematic relations between the male actor and the female character he portrays, the dramatic representation and the reality it imitates, the play and the audience that watches it. Increasingly rigid gender definitions and a devaluation of the feminine are associated with a rejection of fantasy, the development of neoclassical mimetic theory, and a deepening anxiety about the process of theatrical representation.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 102 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 29 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1987

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