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English Language and Literature Commons™
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Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder
Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder
International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appears to some readers as a conservative story of gender-bending, in which all is made “right” in the end. The central character, Viola, disguises herself as Cesario in order to survive. In the final scenes of the play, this character reveals herself to have been a woman all along, and immediately enters a cis-heterosexual marriage with the Duke Orsino. To other readers, the play appears to be an early depiction of what we might now call transmasculinity. In this view, the central character is not just dressing up as a man to survive; he really is Cesario. …
The Mystification Of Gender Affirmation: Galathea, Gender, And Fantasy, Jubilee W. Finnegan
The Mystification Of Gender Affirmation: Galathea, Gender, And Fantasy, Jubilee W. Finnegan
International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities
John Lyly's Galatea centers the role that gender expression plays in both communal interactions and interpersonal relationships. I argue that the way in which Galatea and Phillida present themselves within the play parallels the modern interpretation of transgender theory as outlined by Judith Butler. The actions that the two take are in service of manufacturing the kind of gender expression that breaks from conventional norms. While still rooted within fundamentalist dynamics, Lyly breaks free of bioessentialist understandings of gender in favor of a more liberating approach.