Poetics, perversions, and passing: approaching the transgender narratives of Thesmophoriazousai

Ruffell, I. (2020) Poetics, perversions, and passing: approaching the transgender narratives of Thesmophoriazousai. Illinois Classical Studies, 45(2), pp. 333-367. (doi: 10.5406/illiclasstud.45.2.0333)

Abstract

Aristophanes’s Thesmophoriazousai offers a complex engagement with transgender identity and practice. It explores up to seven different transgendered modes through a variety of motivations and audience response. While embracing fictional/dramatic performance, these modes are best understood within the larger social and cultural framework that the play directly and indirectly suggests. Perched, like much Old Comedy, on the horns of social conservatism and conceptual flexibility, but also acknowledging a broad transgender continuum, the play’s creative tension allows for it to be recuperated and re-used by queer audiences and readers.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ruffell, Professor Isabel
• Authors: Ruffell, I.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Classics
• Journal Name: Illinois Classical Studies
• Journal Abbr.: ICS
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• ISSN: 0363-1923
• ISSN (Online): 2328-5265
• Published Online: 10 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 the Board og Trustees of the University of Illinois
• First Published: First published in Illinois Classical Studies 45(2): 333-367
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy