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Prosthesis and the performance of beginnings in The woman in the moon

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posted on 2023-06-09, 03:05 authored by Chloe PorterChloe Porter
In his seminal study, Prosthesis, David Wills find ‘one type of beginning’ for prosthesis in the appearance of this term in Thomas Wilson’s The Art of Rhetorique (1553). Wills’ analysis focuses extensively on Wilson’s hostility towards this grammatical figure as an artificial other, and at times takes Wilson’s views as reflective of English Reformation thought on this subject more broadly. This essay opens up alternative sixteenth-century attitudes to prosthesis through an examination of John Lyly’s The Woman in the Moon (first published in 1597). Lyly’s play parodies anxieties about prosthesis in the depiction of the creation of a woman whose body is supplemented with heavenly attributes. In this way, Lyly presents a defence of prosthesis as artificial construction that is the product of, and sanctioned by divinity. In turn, Lyly’s play detaches prosthesis from tropes of otherness that dominate Wilson, and Wills’ accounts of this figure.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Textual Practice

ISSN

0950-236X

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

7

Volume

30

Page range

1327-1344

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-09-23

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-05-29

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-09-23

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