Back in the saddle, after inadvertently taking a month off. I'm not sure that this article convinced me of the comparability of ladies in waiting in Shakespeare's plays versus Queen Elizabeth's court. But it does provide a useful reminder that the personal household of a reigning queen provided a context for interesting forms of female power and influence -- as well as an environment where remaining unmarried (and having primary connections with other women) might be advantageous to one's status and success.
LHMP
Blog entry
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 229 - On the Shelf for May 2022 - Transcript
(Originally aired 2022/05/07 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for May 2022.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 228 - The Spirits of Cabassus by Ursula Whitcher - transcript
(Originally aired 2022/04/30 - listen here)
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 227 – Charlotte Charke - transcript
(Originally aired 2022/04/16 - listen here)
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 226 - On the Shelf for April 2022 - Transcript
(Originally aired 2022/03/02 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for April 2022.
News of the Field
I had expected Tvordi's analysis of the homoerotic elements in these plays to follow the conventional path and consider the erotics of cross-dressing. But I rather loved this different look at agency and power differentials within the two couples it examines. This is, of course, one of the two articles that led me to discuss this collection in the blog.
I just had to say that, ok? This is an interesting analysis, and tangentially Project-relevant with its focus on a female household, but there were a few odd clunkers in the author's reasoning. It felt a bit like the author is too focused on questions of literary symbolism and not quite familiar enough with gendered aspects of material and social culture.
Just because an article isn't relevant to the focus of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project doesn't mean it isn't interesting. This one is an incisive look into intra-household politics in Colonial Virginia--I believe the only article in the collection that doesn't focus on England.
In any collection, even ones more centrally focused on topics relevant to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project, there are going to be some misses. This is one.
The life of the vagrant--untethered by ties to family or community--was romanticized even in contexts where vagrants themselves were shunned and persecuted, such as the early 17th century that is the focus of this article. There are many points on which the modern western mindset--and therefore the fiction that it produces and desires--is vastly misaligned with the historic eras the fiction intends to represent. Attitudes toward independence and individualism are one such disjunction.
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