Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Convent of Pleasure

In the excerpt from Radical Tragedy, Jonathan Dollinmore explained the divisive split between those that read early modern tragedy as subversive and reinforcive. In the play-within-a-play of Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure, the drama acted out in front of the "convent matron" seems to substantiate the second, more contemporary view of drama as unthreatening to the normative structures of society. But then it seems to reinforce transgressive behavior (clearly Catholic, clearly homosexual). How does this moment work in relation to Dollinmore's argument and the play as a whole?

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