Misreading Moll’s Virginal Body in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22008281 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katarzyna Burzynska (0000-0003-0160-540X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 491-511 |
| Publication date | 2022-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2161-427X • E-ISSN: 1524-8429 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/intelitestud.24.4.0491 |
| OpenAlex | W4309293764 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This article investigates the early modern fluidity of pregnancy and instability of the reproductive health discourse in order to reconsider Moll’s “green-sickness,” her embodiment and agency in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Taking an (eco)feminist and phenomenological perspective, I argue that Moll has been misdiagnosed by both the play’s characters and critics who failed to recognize her sexual responsiveness to a suitor of her choice. In what follows I look at Middleton’s treatment of contemporary medical knowledge on female health, pregnancy, and labor in order to illuminate a pervasive erasure of female sexual agency in the period. Although Middleton’s characters follow contemporary medical advice, they use it chaotically, contributing to a momentary collapse of virgin/whore, fertile/barren labels—capturing a sex-gender system in flux. The play’s glimpse into maids’ realities problematizes rather than confirms the precepts of humoral medicine
Art · Michel foucault · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|