Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare's England

by Stephen Orgel

Book Overview

Why was England the only country in Europe to maintain an all-male public theatre in the Renaissance? Stephen Orgel uses this question as the starting point of a fresh and stimulating exploration of the representation of gender in Elizabethan drama and society. Why were boys used to play female roles in drama, and how did such cross-dressing impact on the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries? What was the place of women in the Renaissance theatre,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521568420
• ISBN13: 9780521568425
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"