How to Look at a Hermaphrodite in Early Modern England

Bibliographic Data

ID23237993
AuthorsJenny C Mann (corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume46
Issue1
Pages67-91
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in English Literature 1500-1900 (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-3657 • E-ISSN: 1522-9270
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/sel.2006.0008
OpenAlexW2085930057
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited13

This essay argues that the curiosity surrounding hermaphrodites in the early modern period is generated by the very texts in which they appear, texts that train the reader to want to examine the hermaphrodite's body. By reading sixteenth-century medical texts alongside English translations of Ovid's tale of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, I show that just as doctors were beginning to lift up the skirts of historical hermaphrodites and publish descriptions of what they found, Ovidian poets were cloaking the hermaphrodite's sexual parts and thereby frustrating their readers' curiosity. This essay, then, shows how Ovidian poetry diverges from what has been described as the early modern "culture of dissection," thus complicating the conventional narrative of the rise of empiricism.

Aesthetics · Art · Curiosity · Hermaphrodite · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Period (music) · Reading (process) · Vampire · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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