Speaking themselves: Cross-dressing and gender performance in early modern comedies
by Tsamous, Melanie Elizabeth, M.A., CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH, 2009, 93 pages; 1472249

Abstract:

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how women assert themselves in three early modern comedies: William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Ben Jonson's Epicoene, and Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker's The Roaring Girl.

The women in these comedies, within the freedom of the marketplace or a market-like setting, use cross-dressing, commodities, and exchange to gain power over men and to cross the boundaries their societies have established for them. They also engage in behaviors that set them apart from normative women in their society.

Women may gain and maintain power over the men in their society if they succeed in manipulating the gender hierarchy. The women portrayed in these plays do not share equal success. The extent to which they are able to assert themselves depends upon their self-esteem, their class, and their social aims.

 
AdviserLloyd Kermode
SchoolCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH
SourceMAI/ 48-02, p. , Dec 2009
Source TypeThesis
SubjectsTheater; British and Irish literature
Publication Number1472249
Adobe PDF Access the complete dissertation:
 

» This is an open access dissertation.
  Use the link below to access the full text PDF of this graduate work:
  http://gradworks.umi.com/1472249.pdf
  Use the link below to search and retrieve all open access dissertations:
  http://pqdtopen.proquest.com

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.

The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.

If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.