Crossdressing in Literature
Crossdressing was already a recurring motif in classical Greco-Roman literature and was also repeatedly addressed in medieval literature. Crossdressing also appears in modern literature over the last few centuries.
Functions in literature
While women who assume a male identity are often motivated by safety when traveling or at work that are traditionally reserved for men, men who slip into a female role usually take on comedic traits.
Examples in the literature
- In the comedy The Merchant of Venice , Portia disguises herself as the lawyer Balthasar.
- In the comedy As You Like It , Rosalind dresses up as Ganymede .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lydia Miklautsch: The girl Achill. Male crossdressing and female homosexuality in medieval literature in: Matthias Mayer, Hans-Jochen Schiewer: Literary life: Role drafts in the literature of the high and late Middle Ages. Festschrift for Volker Mertens on his 65th birthday , Walter de Gruyter, 2002 ISBN 3484640219
- ↑ Ingrid Bennewitz, Helmut Tervooren [Hrsg.]: Manlîchiu wîp, wîplîch man. On the construction of the categories "body" and "gender" in German literature of the Middle Ages. International colloquium of the Oswald von Wolkenstein Society and the Gerhard Mercator University Duisburg in Xanten 1997. Berlin 1999
- ↑ Belinda Hummel: Changing clothes in baroque literature: A study of crossdressing as a motif in German-language literature. Verlag VDM, Zweibrücken 2009 ISBN 9783639202724