Masculinity, Corporality and the English Stage 1580–1635
Author | : Christian M. Billing |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 248 |
Release | : 2016-09-17 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781317099758 |
ISBN-13 | : 1317099753 |
Rating | : 4/5 (753 Downloads) |
Download or read book Masculinity, Corporality and the English Stage 1580–1635 written by Christian M. Billing and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The significance of human anatomy to the most physical of art forms, the theatre, has hitherto been an under-explored topic. Filling this gap, Christian Billing questions conventional wisdom regarding the one-sex anatomical model and uses a range of medical treatises to delineate an emergent two-sex paradigm of human biology. The impact such a model had on the staging of the human form in English professional theatre is also explored in appraisals of: (i) the homo-erotic significance of a two-sex paradigm; (ii) social and theatrical cross-dressing; (iii) the uses of theatrical androgyny; (iv) masculine corporality and the representation of assertive women; and (v) the theatrical poetics of human dissection. Billing supports cultural and scientific study with close-readings of Lyly, Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, Dekker, Beaumont, Fletcher, and Ford. The book provides a sophisticated and original analysis of the early modern stage body as a discursive site in wider debates concerning sexuality and gender.