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Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature

Women Wooing Men, Aisha Elizabeth Ratanapool May 2015

Women Wooing Men, Aisha Elizabeth Ratanapool

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although many early modern English plays portray women courting men, I contend that there are significant resonances between the methods of Rosalind, the female protagonist from a Shakespearean comedy, and those of the Duchess, from a Websterian tragedy. Rosalind and the Duchess woo, propose to, and arrange the marriage ceremony between them and their love interests. The witty dialogue which permeates the wooing scenes helps establish a strong mental connection between Rosalind and Orlando and the Duchess and Antonio. I examine the motives behind wooing and comparatively analyze the strategies of these female characters. Through this analysis, I present Rosalind …


Shakespeare's Art And Artifice: Passing For Real In As You Like It, Kristen Nicole Cardon Mar 2015

Shakespeare's Art And Artifice: Passing For Real In As You Like It, Kristen Nicole Cardon

Theses and Dissertations

Gender performativity, detailed by Judith Butler and accepted by most contemporary queer theorists, rests on an agentive model of gender wherein “genders are appropriated, theatricalized, worn, and done” (“Imitation and Gender Insubordination” 716). This academic orthodoxy is challenged, however, by the increasing presence of transgender persons joining the theoretical discourse, many of whom experience an essential gender as a central facet of their identity. I respond to Katie R. Horowitz’s recent modification of Butler’s theories—a theory of omniperformance to dissolve the distinction between performance and performativity, and thereby between artifice and “real life.” I argue that gender-as-art, a schema that …