State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State

Abstract

references, while Macbeth has about twelve, we can consider why the past is more resonant in the former play.Such observations are useful to both literary and performance analysis, as are those in the third part of the book.While the three essays in Part II share a common focus, those of Part III consider disparate characters and how the audience understands them.Part III suggests that hired murderers in the plays are generally in a class-bound relationship to a venal authority, and that the use of body parts is more likely to arouse disgust from an audience than either murder or rape.The first of these propositions seems very generative: one can imagine extending its insights to a re-examination of other serving characters, who might be said to exist as a function, not as a subject.The second is considerably more provocative, particularly when Cohen suggests that Lavinia's mutilated body necessarily arouses disgust, while neither her rape nor her murder does (p.163).The way in which he defines "disgust," as a universal human emotion of physical revulsion (p.160), is crucial to his meaning here, yet he has clearly saved his most controversial analysis for last.As my comments may suggest, one strength of the book is the way that it addresses matters of race and class.Its comments about gender are far less important and focus strongly on the father-daughter relationships portrayed in Shakespeare's work.The book does not address the plays' concern with unstable gender categories (especially because of cross-dressed boy actors or heroines in disguise), or indeed with the instability of class identity (Christopher Sly comes to mind, as do Maria and Malvolio).Yet that focus on class and race is certainly the author's prerogative, and Cohen offers intense, rich readings of specific moments that should appeal to many critics.

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