reproduction, effeminacy, and pregnant men in early modern Spain
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Velasco, Sherry
- Publish Year
- 2006
- Shelfmark
- Z EUR 34 2006
- Thesaurus
- rolwisseling, mannelijkheid, seksuele ambivalentie, theater, populaire cultuur, vrouwbeelden, humor, voortplanting, macht, Spanje, vroegmoderne periode
- Description
- In the mid-seventeenth century, Spain's most celebrated comedic actor, Cosme Pérez, alias Juan Rana (John Frog), played the part of a man nine months pregnant in a comic interlude. For contemporary theatergoers this comedy would have been accepted as typical of an upside-down world. In this book Velasco argues that the figure of the pregnant man in early modern Spanish culture also served an important role as a physical representation of the anxieties about the changing roles of men and women at the time. He takes a closer look at the anxieties behind the legal, scientific, and religious efforts to monitor cases of ambiguously sexed individuals, effeminate males, and women's power in reproductive medicine in early modern Spain, and also in other cultures and other times.