Circulating Desire, Shifting Bodies: The Transsexual Eroticism of Middleton and Dekkerâs The Roaring Girl

Jessica R. Pfeffer

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Circulating Desire, Shifting Bodies: The Transsexual Eroticism of Middleton and Dekkerâs The Roaring Girl

äºDesire, Performance, and Classification: Critical Perspectives on the Erotic

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Jessica R. Pfeffer

Jessica R. Pfeffer
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Page Range:: 71â79

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881204_009

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When the Barber-Surgeon Company of London ordered the creation of a public anatomy theatre in 1636, it sought to attract an audience for dissections just as the well-known theatres of Padua and Bologna had done. Anatomy demonstrations were popular vacation attractions and the implicit showmanship and performance of the public dissection were often considered as entertaining and engaging as a a stage play production. An interest in uncovering the body and both understanding and displaying its parts emerged during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, arousing excitement, intrigue, and disgust from the many spectators who yearned to see a human dissection on the public stage. Concurrent with this scientific interest in the body and its theatrical display was a concern with solidifying gender roles in early modern England. Religious pamphlets denounced those who cross-dressed and were, as a result, thought to have affected their physical sex. Anxiety regarding the effects of cross-dressing extended into theatrical practices, which included boys playing the parts of women and men engaging in sexually suggestive acts on stage. Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekkerâs The Roaring Girl, first published in 1611, emerges as an artefact on the nexus of these cultural, scientific, and social debates. Through its recasting of the infamous Mary Frith under the stage guise of Moll Cutpurse as its central character, this play openly engages in discussions regarding the sexualisation and eroticization of ambiguously gendered and sexed bodies. This chapter investigates the ways in which Mollâs body is desired as a result, rather than in spite, of her sexual amorphousness. By placing scenes of this play within the context of scientific interest, discovery, and display, this chapter will explore the various ways in which the body became perceived as erotic and how this eroticism informs the interplay of gender and sexuality.

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Desire, Performance, and Classification: Critical Perspectives on the Erotic

ISBN:: 9781848881204

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 01 Jan 2013

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Comparative Studies & World Literature
- Social Sciences
  - Cultural Studies

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Circulating Desire, Shifting Bodies: The Transsexual Eroticism of Middleton and Dekkerâs The Roaring Girl

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Desire, Performance, and Classification: Critical Perspectives on the Erotic

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Circulating Desire, Shifting Bodies: The Transsexual Eroticism of Middleton and Dekkerâs The Roaring Girl

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