In this class we grapple with the ways early modern writers play with gender roles and write freely and frankly about marriage and sexuality. We will consider anxieties about femininity, masculinity and gender fluidity as they reveal themselves through the period’s fascination with hermaphrodites, feminine men and mannish women. We will engage with some exemplary works of literature, philosophy and visual art from the 16th to the 18th centuries to develop a more robust understanding of representations of gender, marriage and sexuality in the early modern period.
