Abstract
Early modern England had contradictory views about female virginity. While premarital virginity was almost fetishized as insurance of legitimate bloodlines, virginity as a life choice was disapproved of as an anomaly by Protestant moralists. However, the country was ruled for forty-six years by a woman whose vowed celibacy was celebrated in cultural representations. I claim that these contradictions stem from early modern patriarchy’s unconscious that saw virginity as a source of power. A virgin, who had not been penetrated by a man, was not seen exactly as a woman in direct contrast to the male first principle. Virginity denoted a genderless space where a woman could assume male attributes such as autonomy, articulateness, military valor, and political potency. A Midsummer Night’s Dream reflects these discrepancies through its four virgins. It offers lifelong celibacy as a punishment for Hermia’s filial disobedience, yet idolizes the imperial votaress in Oberon’s tale. The play also enlists various tropes that manifest virginal power. Hermia and Helena display courage and outspokenness. Hippolyta, the virgin warrior queen, is a physical threat to men. Finally, the exaltation of the fair vestal (aka Elizabeth I) is linked to the English patriarchy’s need to unsex their monarch, who being a woman was unfit to rule.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Power of the Virgin in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Sea Voyage and the Ship as Poetic Metaphors for Pre-Modern Women Poets Reflecting on Their Own Life and on Love: Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, and Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg
- Scheiternde Subjekte?
- Das Doppelte der poetischen Sprache als Problem der Kritischen Theorie
- Das implizite Trotzdem: Grammatiken der Hoffnung in einer gottverlassenen Welt nach Adorno, Benjamin und Lukács
- An Experiential Diasporic Narrative of Free Indirect Discourse:
- Reviews
- Christian Moser und Reinhard M. Möller, Hgg.: Anekdotisches Erzählen. Zur Geschichte und Poetik einer kleinen Form. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. 445 S.
- Olga Katharina Schwarz: Rationalistische Sinnlichkeit. Zur philosophischen Grundlegung der Kunsttheorie 1700 bis 1760. Leibniz – Wolff – Gottsched – Baumgarten (Quellen und Forschungen zur Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte 102 [336]). Berlin und Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. 370 S.
- Anna-Lena Eick: „Geschichte zerfällt in Bilder, nicht in Geschichten“: Visualität in der literarischen Geschichtsdarstellung. Paderborn: Brill and Fink, 2024. 407pp.
- Katharina Pektor, Hg.: René Char und Peter Handke: Gute Nachbarn. Gedichte, Briefe, Texte und Bilder. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag (Edition Petrarca), 2024. 251 S.
- Tomasz Mizerkiewicz: Czytanie postkrytyczne. Teorie i praktyki literaturoznawcze po konstruktywizmie (Postcritical Reading. Literary Theories and Practices After Constructivism) Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2024. 274pp.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Power of the Virgin in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Sea Voyage and the Ship as Poetic Metaphors for Pre-Modern Women Poets Reflecting on Their Own Life and on Love: Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, and Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg
- Scheiternde Subjekte?
- Das Doppelte der poetischen Sprache als Problem der Kritischen Theorie
- Das implizite Trotzdem: Grammatiken der Hoffnung in einer gottverlassenen Welt nach Adorno, Benjamin und Lukács
- An Experiential Diasporic Narrative of Free Indirect Discourse:
- Reviews
- Christian Moser und Reinhard M. Möller, Hgg.: Anekdotisches Erzählen. Zur Geschichte und Poetik einer kleinen Form. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. 445 S.
- Olga Katharina Schwarz: Rationalistische Sinnlichkeit. Zur philosophischen Grundlegung der Kunsttheorie 1700 bis 1760. Leibniz – Wolff – Gottsched – Baumgarten (Quellen und Forschungen zur Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte 102 [336]). Berlin und Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. 370 S.
- Anna-Lena Eick: „Geschichte zerfällt in Bilder, nicht in Geschichten“: Visualität in der literarischen Geschichtsdarstellung. Paderborn: Brill and Fink, 2024. 407pp.
- Katharina Pektor, Hg.: René Char und Peter Handke: Gute Nachbarn. Gedichte, Briefe, Texte und Bilder. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag (Edition Petrarca), 2024. 251 S.
- Tomasz Mizerkiewicz: Czytanie postkrytyczne. Teorie i praktyki literaturoznawcze po konstruktywizmie (Postcritical Reading. Literary Theories and Practices After Constructivism) Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2024. 274pp.