Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in The Faerie Queene

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Indiana University Press, Sep 22, 1994 - Literary Criticism - 226 pages

" . . . very readable, lucid, intriguing study . . . " —Spenser Newsletter

" . . . a very thoroughgoing inventory of the cruel male fantasies and nightmares imposed on . . . female-gendered figures . . . " —Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Cavanagh has managed to give an almost entirely new reading of [The Faerie Queene]; it is the first feminist rereading of the entire epic, and it reshapes the contours of the huge poem in often startling and remarkable ways." —Maureen Quilligan, University of Pennsylvania

From inside the book

 

Selected pages

Contents

Male Responses to Women in Faeryland
14
Nightmares of Desire
42
Notes
173
Works Cited
205
Copyright

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Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in the Faerie Queene
Sheila T. Cavanagh
Snippet view - 1994
Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in the Faerie Queene
Sheila T. Cavanagh
Snippet view - 1994

Common terms and phrases

allegory Amoret appearance Artegall Arthur behavior Belphoebe Belphoebe's body Book Brito Britomart Busyrane Busyrane's C. S. Lewis Calidore Calidore's chapter chaste chastity critics desire despite discussion display dream Duessa early modern Edmund Spenser Elizabethan emblem books emblematic emphasis encounters epic's episode erotic evil example Faerie Queene Faeryland faire fairest False Florimell fear female beauty female characters female figures female sexuality feminist Florimell Florimell's gender Glauce Gloriana Guyon hags homosocial implications Incubus interpretation Kathleen Williams Ladies loue lust maiden Malbecco male characters male knights Malleus Maleficarum Mercilla Mirabella narrative narrator narratorial Neoplatonic nightmares notes offers Pastorella Petrarchan Petrarchism physical poem presented quest Quilligan rape readers reading Red Crosse Reginald Scot remains Renaissance representation response role Satyrane scene Scudamour seems similar Spenser's epic Squire of Dames story succubi suggests suitors Timias tion titular knights tournament University Press viii virginity virtuous voyeurism witches woman women York

References to this book

About the author (1994)

SHEILA T. CAVANAGH is Assistant Professor of English and associated faculty in Women's Studies at Emory University.

Bibliographic information

TitleWanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in The Faerie Queene
AuthorSheila T. Cavanagh
PublisherIndiana University Press, 1994
ISBN0253208890, 9780253208897
Length226 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Literary Criticism / General
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Love & Erotica
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Women
Literary Criticism / Women Authors
Poetry / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory
Social Science / Women's Studies
  
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