Description

Book Synopsis
Through examining some of the everyday items that helped establish a person's masculinity or femininity, this book offers a new analysis of gender identity in early modern English literature and culture. Individual chapters focus on items such as codpieces, handkerchiefs, beards, and hair. Fisher argues that these seemingly peripheral parts were in fact constitutive, and consequently that early modern gender was materialized through a relatively wide range of parts or features, and that it was also often conceptualized as being malleable. The book deliberately brings together sexual characteristics (beard growth and hair length) and gendered accessories (codpieces and handkerchiefs) in order to explore the limitations of using the modern conceptual distinction between sex and gender to understand early modern ideas about masculinity and femininity. Materializing Gender engages with a range of historical materials including drama, poetry, portraiture, medical texts, and polemical tracts

Table of Contents
Introduction: Prosthetic gender in early modern England; 1. That Shakespearean rag: handkerchiefs and femininity; 2. 'That codpiece ago': codpieces and masculinity in early modern England; 3. 'His Majesty the beard': beards and masculinity; 4. 'The ornament of their sex': hair and gender; Conclusion: detachable parts and the individual.

Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Literature and Culture 52 Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture Series Number 52

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    A Paperback by Will Fisher

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      View other formats and editions of Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Literature and Culture 52 Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture Series Number 52 by Will Fisher

      Publisher: Cambridge University Press
      Publication Date: 6/24/2010 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780521144728, 978-0521144728
      ISBN10: 0521144728
      Also in:
      Literary studies: ancient, classical

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Through examining some of the everyday items that helped establish a person's masculinity or femininity, this book offers a new analysis of gender identity in early modern English literature and culture. Individual chapters focus on items such as codpieces, handkerchiefs, beards, and hair. Fisher argues that these seemingly peripheral parts were in fact constitutive, and consequently that early modern gender was materialized through a relatively wide range of parts or features, and that it was also often conceptualized as being malleable. The book deliberately brings together sexual characteristics (beard growth and hair length) and gendered accessories (codpieces and handkerchiefs) in order to explore the limitations of using the modern conceptual distinction between sex and gender to understand early modern ideas about masculinity and femininity. Materializing Gender engages with a range of historical materials including drama, poetry, portraiture, medical texts, and polemical tracts

      Table of Contents
      Introduction: Prosthetic gender in early modern England; 1. That Shakespearean rag: handkerchiefs and femininity; 2. 'That codpiece ago': codpieces and masculinity in early modern England; 3. 'His Majesty the beard': beards and masculinity; 4. 'The ornament of their sex': hair and gender; Conclusion: detachable parts and the individual.

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