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Deviant bodies and the reordering of desire: Heterosexuality and nation-building in early modern England Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Tvordi, Jessica Lynn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 03:03:10 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/279980 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has t)een reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g.. maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Art)or. Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was microfilmed as received. 115 This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI' DEVIANT BODIES AND THE REORDERING OF DESIRE: HETEROSEXUALITY AND NATION-BUILDING IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND By Jessica Lynn Tvordi Copyright £ Jessica Lynn Tvordi 2002 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2002 UMI Number 3050349 Copyright 2002 by Tvordi. Jessica Lynn All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform 3050349 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Mi 48106-1346 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Jessica Lynn Tvordi entitled Deviant Bodies and the Reordering of Desire: Heterosexualicv and Natlon-Bulldlng In Early Modern England and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ko. iSv—. iii<^ IDI_ Meg Lota Brown Date 'h Zw Uireich Date Miranda Jose Date 6 Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Ax iSto— f / is/d 2^ Dissertation Director Meg Lota Brown Date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A study of this scope could not have been completed without the encouragement and support of many people, beginning with my dissertation committee. My chair. Meg Lota Brown, exhibited a great deal of enthusiasm for this project from its inception through the oral defense. Her ability to see the potential in my chaotic first drafts gave me the confidence—and the patience—to persevere. John Ulreich proved a rigorous yet generous reader of my work, helping me to clarify my arguments at every stage of the writing process. I have learned much about both the pleasures and the challenges of reading (and teaching) Milton under his guidance. The astute observations of Kari McBride not only enabled me to write a stronger dissertation, but also helped me to think about future revisions of this project. Finally. Miranda Joseph's contributions were invaluable in helping me to clarify my approach to the history of sexuality, particularly as 1 began the difficult task of writing my introduction. 1 feel extremely lucky to have worked with such a talented and generous group of scholars. I am grateful to a number of other professors at the University of Arizona and beyond for their assistance. In his capacity as the Department of English's Placement Director, Gregory Jackson read the first three chapters of this project with the sort of attention that one would only expect from a dissertation committee member. Susan Aiken has demonstrated her support of my work in numerous ways, from helping me to secure funding to offering me excellent advice on the job search. My first graduate school professor. Susan Frye. gave me the encouragement and confidence I needed to pursue doctoral studies, and continues to offer generous support and excellent advice regarding my intellectual pursuits. 1 am also indebted to a number of current and former graduate student who have offered both intellectual stimulation and emotional support over the years; Matthew Sheehan. Alex McLeod. Jean Goodrich. Cathy Chaput. Kat McClellan. Donald McNutt, Catherine Pomerleau. and. especially, Caren Zinmierman. I am indebted to Carol Ebbeke for helping me survive my first few Tucson summers—and to Cubby Lash and Tricia Rude for making my life outside of graduate school much more interesting. I want. also, to acknowledge my colleagues in the English Advising Office—Laura Berry, Roger Bowen. and especially Aime Driscoll—for helping to make my final months as a graduate student a pleasurable experience. My final and most heartfelt thanks goes to my parents for the emotional and intellectual encouragement they have provided throughout my many years of graduate study. Since my father's death in 1999. my mother has had to tackle this challenging job on her own. I dedicate this dissertation to them both. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 6 INTRODUCTION 8 -QUEERING'" ELIZABETH: NATIONAL BOUNDARIES. HETEROSEXUAL DESIRE. AND DEVIANT BODIES IN LYLY AND SPENSER 29 2. KINGSHIP AND THE SPECTER OF DEVIANCE: JAMES I. CHARLES L AND THE POLITICS OF SODOMY IN THE 1630S 82 3. NATION-BUILDING AND HETEROSEXUAL DESIRE: MILTON. MARVELL. AND THE EROTIC ORDERING OF THE COMMONWEALTH 136 4. SOVEREIGNTY. SUBORDINATION. AND THE DEVIANT SUBJECT: THE INVENTION OF HETEROSEXUALITY IN PARADISE LOST 184 CONCLUSION 231 NOTES 235 WORKS CITED 271 6 ABSTRACT Deviant Bodies explores how post-Reformation anxieties about institutional politics, civic morality, and national boundaries inform—and are informed by—early modem discourses on sexual deviance. Focusing on works by John Bale, John Lyly. Edmund Spenser, James I. Thomas Carew, Andrew Marvell. and John Milton, my study argues that the disruptive presence of queer desire plays an integral role in shaping the emerging, interrelated discourses of heterosexuality and nationalism in early modem culture. Looking at heterosexuality as a complex structure organizing political and sexual relations, my project analyzes the production, circulation, and eradication of deviant sexuality in polemical and literary works that imagine the nation within the context of Protestant political reform. Through its analysis of the textual roots of early English nationalism. Deviant Bodies reveals the extent to which cultural representations of the nation are constituted through sexual deviance. Rather than focusing on the recovery of an essentidist or constructed notion of a "queer" early modem self, however, my study examines the mechanisms of the early modem state—the monarchy, the church, the judiciary, and the parliament—that imagine the existence of sexually deviemt individuals or groups. To that end. my study focuses not simply on the historical and literary representation of same-gender sexual desires, acts, or relationships, but rather on the complex relationship of such representations to the institutions that first produce and later obliterate them. Deviant Bodies examines the relationship of sexual aberrance to other 7 categories of cultural deviance with which it is frequently conflated: gender insubordination, religious transgression, and the abuses of political authority most frequently associated with kingship. Through its exploration of the cultural deviance associated with women, papists, and kings in early modem England, this study considers the ways that the nation depends on a complex ideology of deviance in order to constructs its own seemingly immutable borders. 8 INTRODUCTION Deviant Bodies explores how post-Reformation anxieties about institutional politics, civic
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