Billing, Christian M. (2000) Fashioning anatomies : figurations of the sexed and gendered body on the early modern English stage. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This dissertation is an investigation into the representation of the sexed and gendered body
on the English stage between the years 1570 and 1635. The parameters of the study are
fully set out in the introduction, however, a summary that might prove useful to the general
reader is as follows:
The thesis commences with an account of the 'one-sex' anatomical model - as recently set out
by Thomas Laqueur in Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge.
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990). It then proceeds to question the dominance of such an
anatomical paradigm throughout the entire Renaissance - and, in its first chapter, sets out
evidence from various medical treatises in order to outline the emergence of a contrasting 'two-sex'
model of human reproductive biology.
Chapter two then uses evidence from a 'two-sex' model in order to re-examine the homo-erotic
implications of theatrical narratives that present (or imply) spontaneous sex changes (by means
of an analysis of John Lyly's Gallathea and Shakespeare's Falstaff plays). In chapter three,
attention turns to the female body in early modern English society and attempts to assess the
implications of an emergent 'two-sex' model on female cultural and social agency in the period
(by means of an analysis of actual female-to-male cross-dressers and the anatomical
representations of the female body that were undertaken in elite cultural forms such as the Court
Masque). Chapter four then turns back to the professional English transvestite stage in order to
examine the strategies of recuperation of the female body that were employed in a production
environment that was exclusively controlled by men (and this is undertaken by means of an
analysis of Middleton and Dekker's The Roaring Girl and Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's
Tradedy).
Chapter five turns its attention to an analysis of theatre and anatomy hall architecture in order to
examine the ways in which one exclusive private theatre (Christopher Beeston's Phoenix, in
Drury Lane) sought to exploit an architectural accident in order to provide elite audiences with a
staged representation of the processes of anatomical dissection. Finally, chapter six examines
four plays by John Ford: The Witch of Edmonton, The Broken Heart, Love's Sacrifice and 'Tis
Pity She's A Whore in order to examine the anatomical emblazonment of the female body in two
specific Private theatres.
The dissertation also contains four appendices:
I) Selections from the Published Debate Between Jean Riolan and
Jacques Duval Concerning the Case of Marie Le Marcis, the
Hermaphrodite of Rouen
II) The List of Sex Changes from Johann Schenck von Graffenberg's
Observationum Medicarum Rarum (Frankfurt, 1600)
III) Selections From Thomas Artus' L'Isle des Hermaphrodites
IV) Selections From The Boke of Duke Huon ofBurdeux, translated by Sir
John Bourchier (Lord Berners] (Wynkyn de Worde, 1534)
V) Anthony Wood, Athena Oxonienses. An Exact history of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the most Ancient and
Famous University ofOxford(a Biography of William Petty)

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater Q Science > QM Human anatomy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Gender identity in literature, Human anatomy in literature, Females in literature, Sex in literature, English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600, English drama -- 17th century, Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century, Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century
Official Date:	September 2000
Dates:	Date Event September 2000 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Theatre Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Shewring, Margaret
Sponsors:	University of Wisconsin-Madison ; British Academy ; University of Warwick. Dept. of Theatre Studies
Extent:	xvi, 331 leaves
Language:	eng

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