Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8815

Title: Bodies, Stays, Bodices and Busks: The Early Modern Corset and the Performance of Gender and Sexuality in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England
Authors: Bendall, Sarah
Department of History
Keywords: gender
sexuality
Early Modern England
studies of the body
women
corsets and clothing
Issue Date: Nov-2012
Abstract: This thesis recovers the early modern corset – ‘bodies’, ‘stays’, ‘bodices’, ‘busks’ - from the fashion history timeline in order to reveal how these material objects and their interaction with the female body formed a central component of gender and sexuality in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England. The corset shaped the torso physically, visually and discursively, inscribing sex and class onto the female body. This thesis argues that corsets and their accessories not only reveal the varying notions of gender and sexuality during this period, but ultimately show how the clothed body ‘performed’ or ‘staged’ culturally-approved notions of femininity and sexual desire.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8815
Department/Unit/Centre: Department of History
Rights and Permissions: The author retains copyright of this thesis
Type of Work: Thesis, Honours
Appears in Collections:Honours Theses - Department of History

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