Golden Age Disguise

Revision with unchanged content. During the Golden Age of Spanish theater Tirso de Molina was especially well known for his prortrayal of women and his use of female disguise and cross-dressing on stage. This work examines how this tendency can be understood as a mechanism for females in the play, and in society as a whole, to skirt societal rules and gain power to act and achieve their goals. Although cross-dressing has typically been understood in psycho-sexual terms, I argue that an analysis using power mechanisms is a better fit. The dificullty that results in the use of disguise and cross-dressing is a tendency for Tirso's charachters to lose control of themselves and their created identity. This highlights the dangers inherent in the use of masquing behavior. This work is designed for those working with Spanish Golden Age theater. It is also applicable as a companion to studies in English theater of the period, and can be read in comparison with feminist and psychological analysis of theater. Because in deals with cross-dressing, this book may also be of use to gender and sexuality studies.