Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations

This book examines male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry. Chess argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender-that crossdressers' genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. These relational representations show that the crossdresser often benefits financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation. The book makes a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied, and queer-feminine representations in conversations about early modern gender and sexuality.

Author: Simone Chess
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 01/17/2019
Pages: 196
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9780367210472

About the Author

Simone Chess is an Assistant Professor of English and an affiliate of the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Program at Wayne State University in Detroit. Her research interests are in Early Modern literary and cultural studies, queer studies, and gender and sexuality studies. She has published articles and book chapters on the topics of crossdressing, bathroom activism, ballads, and blindness.