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Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Staging Sex Or Fighting Foreignness? Marlowe's Edward Ii As Xenophobic Drama, James D. Baker
Staging Sex Or Fighting Foreignness? Marlowe's Edward Ii As Xenophobic Drama, James D. Baker
Master's Theses
Christopher Marlowe’s drama Edward II has long been known for its representation of a close male, arguably homosexual, friendship between King Edward II and his favorite, the French Piers Gaveston, as well as their union’s negative effects on the court. Indeed much criticism exists on the common belief that the characters’ relationship is problematic in early modern England both because the two characters are male and because there is an obvious class divide. However, critics have seemed to overlook Gaveston’s being French, even in light of the massive immigration to England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This …
Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser
Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser
Dissertations
This dissertation demonstrates that Shakespearean boyhood, both in early modern plays and contemporary reimaginings for young readers, critiques patriarchal and hegemonic ideals through the rhetoric and behavior of boy characters. Although critics have called Shakespeare’s boy characters indistinguishable, I find that they provide Shakespeare a unique resource to offer persuasive skepticism about heroic conventions, education, and political instability. This project begins by examining the lexical network of boy in order to chart its uses in early modern England. The subsequent three chapters establish how Shakespeare uses boys to comment on a range of ideal manhoods, such as the chivalrous …