The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern EnglandValerie Traub analyzes the representation of female-female love, desire, and eroticism in a range of early modern discourses, including poetry, drama, visual arts, pornography, and medicine. Contrary to the silence ascribed to lesbianism in the Renaissance, Traub argues that the early modern period witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of representations of such desire. As a contribution to the history of sexuality and to feminist and queer theory, the book addresses current theoretical preoccupations through the lens of historical inquiry. |
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Contents
practicing impossibilities | 1 |
Setting the stage behind the seen performing lesbian history | 36 |
A certaine incredible excesse of pleasure female orgasm prosthetic pleasures and the anatomical pudica | 77 |
The politics of pleasure or queering Queen Elizabeth | 125 |
The insignificance of lesbian desire | 158 |
The psychomorphology of the clitoris or the reemergence of the tribade in English culture | 188 |
Chaste femme love mythological pastoral and the perversion of lesbian desire | 229 |
Friendship so curst amor impossibilis the homoerotic lament and the nature of lesbian desire | 276 |
The quest for origins erotic similitude and the melancholy of lesbian identification | 326 |
Afterword | 355 |
Notes | 362 |
| 472 | |
| 480 | |
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Common terms and phrases
According acts affection anatomy argues articulation attempt authority become bodily body breasts Calisto called century chapter chaste chastity clitoris construction continues conventional court critical cultural describe desire difference discourse discussion early modern edition Elizabeth England English erotic eroticism expression female female-female feminine figure friendship function gender hand heterosexuality historical homoerotic homoeroticism homosexuality husband identification identity instance interpretation Italy John kissing knowledge Lady lesbian less lines literary literature logic London male marriage married masculine means misogyny narrative Nature notes object particular passion past patriarchal performance period Philips play pleasure poem political position possibility practices present Queen question reading reference relations Renaissance representations represented rhetoric seems seventeenth century sexual Shakespeare social sodomy structure Studies suggest texts tion tradition translation tribade University Press virgin woman women writers York
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England Volume 42 of Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture, ISSN 1747-3926 |
| Authors | Valerie Traub, Frederick G L Huetwell Professor of English and Women's Studies Valerie Traub |
| Editors | Stephen Orgel, Anne Barton |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 2002 |
| ISBN | 0521448859, 9780521448857 |
| Length | 492 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Renaissance Social Science / Gender Studies Social Science / LGBTQ+ Studies / Lesbian Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |