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The Anxiety of Attire:

The Anxiety of Attire:. The Troubling Subtext of Twelfth Night’s Act IV. Question:. Did anyone find it odd that Olivia cannot tell Cesario from Sebastion?. A slight historical interlude:.   Sumptuary laws were enacted in England during this time

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The Anxiety of Attire:

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  1. The Anxiety of Attire: The Troubling Subtext of Twelfth Night’s Act IV

  2. Question: • Did anyone find it odd that Olivia cannot tell Cesario from Sebastion?

  3. A slight historical interlude: •   Sumptuary laws were enacted in England during this time • These made it a crime to wear certain clothes e.g. a woman wearing a man’s clothing. • Driving force behind the laws is a fear within society about the role of identity? • Do the clothes make the man or the man the clothes? • Theaters were often running up against this problem.

  4. Basis in Structuralism • Symbols signify meaning • Order results from an agreed upon meaning for a symbol: signifier = signified • Disorder would result from disagreement on what a symbol means: signifier = ?

  5. Structuralism and Sumptuary Laws • Signifier A Dress Woman

  6. Structuralism and Sumptuary Laws • Signifier Signified pants MAN

  7. Structuralism and Sumptuary Laws KING

  8. Contradictions • However, England was full of problematic symbols

  9. Twelfth Night’s Connection • Looking at Twelfth Night Act IV find one example of the Renaissance Anxiety about attire and disordering society: • Act IV Scene 1 • Act IV Scene 2 • Act IV scene 3 • What is the example and how could this negatively impact society?

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