| dc.description | This thesis explores the construction of listening as appropriate or transgressive, particularly as determined by social status and gender, in a variety of early modern texts, including the drama. Chapter 1 examines beliefs about the physiology of hearing to argue that while preachers and playwrights demanded auditors, listening was deemed inherently dangerous. Nonetheless, deafness or poor auditory discernment offered no protection as dull hearing was frequently associated with dull-wittedness as shown by King Midas and the dupes in Jonson's Volpone and Epicoene. The desire to listen to inappropriate speech often underlies poor auditory discernment, and chapter 2 explores this desire in the king-courtier relationships of Marlowe's Edward II, drawing on works by Erasmus and Machiavelli, the theory of the king's two bodies, and the iconography of The Rainbow Portrait. Moving from Edward's inability to close his ear to unwanted speech, chapter 3 examines the link between female aural and sexual openness found in the conduct literature and suggests that this association is complicated in Shakespeare's Othello by being determined less by Desdemona's own behaviour than that of the men around her. Chapter 4 further explores female listening in connection with appetite and oral openness in Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness, in which, paradoxically, Anne's closure may signify desire. Chapter 5 continues the assessment of listening within the family hierarchy by considering the parent-child relationships of Hamlet in conjunction with the parental advice literature and posits that the corruption caused by listening to substitute characters and tales within the play exposes the dangers of listening in the theatre itself. Finally, it is argued that the drama of the period explores the dangers and disease believed inherent to listening while allowing playgoers to experience the delight and fear associated with being unable to discern what lies beneath a speaker's words. | en_US |
