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University of Nevada, Las Vegas
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Believable femininity; Early modern; Shakespeare; Spenser; Wonder Woman
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Woman Or Warrior? How Believable Femininity Shapes Warrior Women, Jessica D. Mccall
Woman Or Warrior? How Believable Femininity Shapes Warrior Women, Jessica D. Mccall
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
My dissertation is an exploration of how femininity is constructed in the characters of warrior women. I define and apply my theory of believable femininity: the notion that in order for characters gendered female to be accepted by an audience, specific textual markers must render them submissive to a dominating male figure. I examine the following warrior women at length: Britomart and Radigund from Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Christine de Pizan's treatment of Amazons in her Book of the City of Ladies and Hippolyta's specific portrayal by de Pizan in comparison to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and the …