Castration Impotence and Emasculation in the Long Eighteenth Century

<p>This essay collection examines one of the most fearsome fascinating and hotly-discussed topics of the long eighteenth century: masculinity compromised. During this timespan there was hardly a literary or artistic genre that did not feature unmanning regularly and prominently: from harrowing tales of castrations in medical treatises to emasculated husbands in stage comedies to sympathetic and powerful eunuchs in prose fiction to glorious operatic performances by castrati in Italy to humorous depictions in caricature and satirical paintings to fearsome descriptions of Eastern eunuchs in travel narratives to foolish and impotent old men who became a mainstay in drama. Not only does this unprecedented study of unmanning (in all of its varied forms) illustrate the sheer prevalence of a trope that featured prominently across literary and artistic genres but it also demonstrates the ways diminished masculinity reflected some of the most strongly-held anxieties interests and values of eighteenth-century Britons.</p>