Title: Warrior women and popular balladry, 1650-1850
First published: 1989
Description: Masquerading as a man, seeking adventure, going to war or to sea for love and glory, the transvestite heroine flourished in all kinds of literature, especially ballads, from the Renaissance to the Victorian age. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850 identifies this heroine and her significance as a figure in folklore, and as a representative of popular culture, prompting important reevaluations of gender and sexuality.

Dugaw has uncovered a fascination with women cross-dressers in the popular literature of early modern Europe and America. Surveying a wide range of Anglo-American texts from popular ballads and chapbook life histories to the comedies and tragedies of aristocratic literature, she demonstrates the extent to which gender and sexuality are enacted as constructs of history.
Subjects: Ballads, English, English Ballads, English War poetry, English poetry, Heroines in literature, History and criticism, Popular literature, Transvestism in literature, Transvestites in literature, War poetry, English, Women in literature, Women soldiers in literature, Ballads, history and criticism, English literature, history and criticism, 18th century, Cross-dressers in literature, Cross-dressing in literature
Places: England
Time periods: 18th century