Page:  of 26
 

Homophobia and the Regulation of Desire:
A Psychoanalytic Reading of Marlowe's
Edward II

VIVIANA COMENSOLI
Department of English
Wilfrid Laurier University

CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON Christopher Marlowe portrayal
of homosexuality in Edward II 1 is largely divided between those
who see the play as a morality-patterned tragedy inscribing a cause-

____________________
A shorter version of this paper was presented to the Marlowe Society at the annual
meeting of the Modern Language Association of America, San Francisco, December
27-30, 1991. I am especially grateful to Sara Munson Deats and Constance Kuriyama
for their helpful comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the anonymous
reviewers for the Journal of the History of Sexuality and Kay Stockholder, who read and
commented on an early draft.
1 Because the term "homosexuality" is not found in Renaissance discourses, I am fol-
lowing the practice of a number of modern historiographers and commentators who
employ it "in as directly physical--and hence culturally neutral--a sense as possible"
( Alan Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England [ Boston, 1982 ], p. 17). This does not
mean, however, that the early modern period did not conceptualize forbidden sexual
practices. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, in her Epistemology of the Closet (Berkeley, CA, 1990 ),
notes that while "the word 'homosexual' entered Euro-American discourse during the
last third of the nineteenth century, . . . the sexual behaviors, and even for some people
the conscious identities, denoted by the new term 'homosexual' and its contemporary
variants already had a long, rich history" (p. 2). And Jonathan Dollimore, in his analysis
of the construction of sexual deviance in early modern England, writes that the "nearest
concepts" to the term "homosexual" at this time "were probably sodomy and buggery"
but that "there remain certain continuities" between early modern conceptions of sod-
omy and homosexuality "as a modern identity"; sodomy, for example, was a signifier of
deviance, namely, "the point of entry into civilization for the unnatural, the aberrant,
and the abhorrent, the wilderness of disorder" that "might . . . infiltrate civilization
through diverse subject types" ( Jonathan Dollimore, Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to
Wilde, Freud to Foucault [ Oxford, 1991 ], pp. 238-39). Joseph Cady, arguing against
"the dominant claim in gay studies now that homosexuality is a relatively new historical
'invention,'" carefully and persuasively demonstrates that the term "masculine love,"

-175-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Article Title: Homophobia and the Regulation of Desire: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Marlowe's Edward II. Contributors: Viviana Comensoli - author. Journal Title: Journal of the History of Sexuality. Volume: 4. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 1993. Page Number: 175.
    
This feature allows you to create and manage separate folders for your different research projects. To view markups for a different project, make that project your current project.
This feature allows you to save a link to the publication you are reading or view all the publications you have put on your bookshelf.
This feature allows you to save a link to the page you are reading, which you can later return to from Projects.
This feature allows you to highlight words or phrases on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to save a note you write on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to create a citation to the page you are reading that you can paste into your paper. Highlight a passage to include that passage as a quotation.
This feature allows you to save a reference to a publication you are reading for your bibliography or generate a bibliography you can paste into your paper.
This feature allows you to print the page you are reading, including your notes or highlights (IE users must have "print background colors and image" setting selected.)
This feature allows you to look up words in encyclopedia.
  About Questia Tools
Close Window  
Questia's powerful research tools allow you to highlight, take notes, bookmark and even create instant citations and bibliographies. To use these features and save hours of work, you must create a Questia account.
Need a Questia account?
Sign up for a FREE trial now. Save time, stress and hassle, and get better grades with trusted, online research.

» Click here for our free trial

Already have a Questia account? Login now!
Error
Working...
Printing Preferences
Format for black and white printer: On Off
Print highlights: On Off
Print notes: On Off
Choose one of the options for printing:
Print this page (No Charge)
Print pages to