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Wed, 10 Apr 1996 10:19:32 -0600 |
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Peter Latham writes:
"Cross-dressing has been a standard comedic device since (at least)
Shakespeare's 12th Night. Have films treated the subject any differently?"
Well, we can go back even farther. Didn't Achilles dress as a woman to dodge
the Troy draft?
But Shakespeare complicates things because of the stage practices of his day,
ie having only male actors. So when a female character dresses as a man in
his plays, it's actually a boy playing a woman dressing as a man, which is
a very complicated set of arrangments that WS plays off in various ways.
Consider Cleopatra's assertion in ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA that at some time in
a future a beardless youth will speak her words--which are of course being
spoken by a beardless youth.
What then happens when a woman plays the female part that was written for a
young man?
In contrast, movie treatments of the theme seem downright simple!
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
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