Open AccessKidnapped Amazonians, Severed Breasts, and Witches
Author(s) -
Laken Brooks
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
digital literature review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2692-904X
DOI - 10.33043/dlr.3.0.108-118
Subject(s) - freak , bliss , spectacle , romance , art , the renaissance , history , art history , literature , political science , law , computer security , computer science , programming language
Freak shows are physical and metaphorical,demonstrating a cultural perception of what and who is privileged. In Renaissance England, Shakespeare and Spenser both write of deviant women and perpetuate the stereotypes of foreign women, creating literary “freak shows” in their works Two Noble Kinsmen and The Bower of Bliss. Whether these characters are Amazonian women disinterested in heterosexual romance or promiscuous witches, they are set as spectacle in the confines of their respective texts.