Department of English

My research focuses on representations of gender and sexuality in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I am particularly interested in the role of Italian influence in the constancy tropes of Lady Mary Wroth. I am exploring how Wroth indirectly approaches classical models of gender through her interactions with Ariosto and Tasso. In studying Wroth’s engagements with
not only English but also Italian literary tradition, I hope to reveal how she emphasizes the variousness of female identity by frequently participating in–rather than solely writing against–male constructions of genre. Beyond Wroth, my work primarily engages with Spenser and Shakespeare. I examine parodic digression and definitions of chivalric masculinity in The Faerie Queene, portrayals of homoerotic desire in Shakespearean comedy, and depictions of female agency in early modern pastoral tragicomedy.