Description:
This book examines male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry. Chess argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender--that crossdressers' genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. These relational representations show that the crossdresser often benefits financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation. The book makes a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied, and queer-feminine representations in conversations about early modern gender and sexuality.
Review Quotes:
Not just an important contribution to early modern and trans studies, but an essential work of transfeminist scholarship.
Kadin Henningsen - Trans Studies Quarterly
The scope of this monograph is ambitious [and] would be of interest to a wide audience not only for those working on early modern literature but also to any working on gender and sexuality across historical periods and geographic boundaries.
Vanessa Wright, University of Leeds