As Secret as Maidenhead: The Profession of the Boy-Actress in Twelfth Night

Wikander, Matthew H.

doi:10.1353/cdr.1986.0005

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…"O Time, thou must untangle this, not I," she protests in her soliloquy; "It is too hard a knot for me t'untie"(II.ii.39-40). The deadlock for Viola, as Wikander senses 'is represented by her inability to improvise, to venture beyond the part set down; her passiveness and emptiness are preconditions of her femininity' (Wikander, 2019).…”

Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cross-dressing for Portia is a chance to play "a thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks" (III.iv.77) while for Viola it is 'distaste' and 'philosophical discomfort'. In fact Viola is in trouble for her own identity and she admits that disguise is a 'falsity of external looks' (Wikander, 2019) and a deceptive one. In her soliloquy, we listen: Disguise, I see thou are a wickedness Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.…”

Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In her "proper false" disguise she yearns for the fixity that only male power can impose (p.359). However, although Viola deems her disguise as a 'deceptive imposture' (Wikander, 2019), she finally overcomes the marginality and liminality of her femininity by marrying Orsino and becoming the "'master's mistress" at the end of the play (Malcolmson, 1996). The presentist approach echoes this and suggests that Viola is such a feminine heroine who, although literally shipwrecked and exhausted, overcomes all the impasses surrounding her, using the tool of transvestism to rescue herself despite being caught up in a male dominated oppressive society.…”

Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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A Historicist and Presentist interpretation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Shahidullah

Manaf

2019

UOCHJLL

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Historicism and Presentism are two recent, mostly discussed phenomena in the area of Shakespearean studies. While historicists like Stephen Greenblatt argues that historicism pursues historical aspects to explain a text and keeps away present-day political, social and cultural affairs to avoid the misunderstanding of it, the presentists like Terence Hawkes advocates that Presentism offers an unending dialogue between present and past, which is deeply rooted to the present. In addition, Presentism is the re-evaluation of the historical facts upon which our early modern understanding depends. Therefore, Presentism could be an excellent idea to interpret the appropriacy of early modern literature, especially Shakespeare’s oeuvre. This paper, however, elucidates Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, from both historicist and presentist points of view, which looks especially at the way Shakespeare views gender while applying these both approaches. This article also clarifies the reasons for selecting this text for explicating Shakespeare from these two approaches. Finally, this study advocates for combining these two approaches, which might offer a better way to understand Shakespeare’s works and to make him more relevant today.

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Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Twelfth Night From Presentist Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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