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English Language and Literature
City University of New York (CUNY)
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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Furious: Myth, Gender, And The Origins Of Lady Macbeth, Emma King
Furious: Myth, Gender, And The Origins Of Lady Macbeth, Emma King
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis attempts to understand the fabulously complex and poisonously unsettling Lady Macbeth as a product of classical reception and intertextuality in early modern England. Whence comes her “undaunted mettle” (1.7.73)? Why is she, like the regicide she helps commit, such a “bloody piece of work” (2.3.108)? How does her ability to be “bloody, bold, and resolute” (4.1.81), as Macbeth is commanded to be, reflect canonical literary ideas, early modern or otherwise, regarding women, gender, and violence? Approaching texts in the literary canon as the result of transformation and reception, this research analyzes the ways in which Lady Macbeth’s gender, …
Chimeras, Centaurs, And Satyrs: Creating Mixed Genre Texts In Antiquity And The Renaissance, Claire Sommers
Chimeras, Centaurs, And Satyrs: Creating Mixed Genre Texts In Antiquity And The Renaissance, Claire Sommers
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Mirroring its many definitions, the concept of hybridity has historically been a highly fraught one, with creatures such as the centaur or the satyr alternately treated as wild and wise. Defined as a “mixed entity,” the English word “hybrid” derives from the ancient Greek hybris, a term with several connotations, including wanton violence, lust, or outrage. The word is also synonymous with “hubris,” or excessive pride. Hybris also developed additional meanings, referring to a deed of excess, an attempt to rise above one’s station, or the desire to surpass the gods. More positively, hybris may also be translated as …