Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern England

To recent studies of Renaissance subjectivity Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern England contributes the argument that masculinity is unavoidably anxious and volatile in cultures that distribute power and authority according to patriarchal prerogatives. Drawing from current arguments in feminism cultural studies historicism psychoanalysis and gay studies Mark Breitenberg explores the dialectic of desire and anxiety in masculine subjectivity in the work of a wide range of writers including Shakespeare Bacon Burton and the women writers of the querelles des femmes debate especially Jane Anger. Breitenberg discusses jealousy and cuckoldry anxiety hetero and homoerotic desire humoural psychology anatomical difference cross-dressing and the idea of honor and reputation. He traces masculine anxiety both as a sign of ideological contradiction and paradoxically as a productive force in the perpetuation of Western patriarchal systems.