Constructions of female homoeroticism in early modern drama
By: Denise A. Walen.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Early modern cultural studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
Subjects: English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism.; Homosexuality and literature -- England -- History -- 16th century.; Homosexuality and literature -- England -- History -- 17th century.; English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism.; Lesbians in literature.; Women in literature.
Description: This book explores representations of love and desire between female characters in nearly seventy plays written between 1580 and 1660. The work argues that playwrights of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England recognized and constructed richly diverse tropes of female homoerotic desire. Writers place female characters in erotic situations with other female characters in playful scenarios of mistaken identity, in anxious moments of amorous intrigue, in predatory situations and in enthusiastic, utopian representations of romantic love. These plays indicate an awareness of female homoeroticism in early modern England and belie statements that literary evidence of homosexuality was concerned primarily with men.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-219) and index.