Tiziana Febronia Arena Libros

This work investigates how female identity was performatively negotiated on the Restoration stage by women playwrights, particularly Aphra Behn. It explores how a new articulation of social space contributed to the formation of a potentially emancipatory sense of gendered selfhood as a flexible instantiation of performative roles. The author examines the role of theatrical performativity among Restoration women playwrights, presenting it as an alternative path to feminist revision and offering fresh perspectives on early modern women’s studies and Behn studies. It highlights how women challenged and subverted heteropatriarchal norms by stepping outside their social roles to create a female space within the public domain of theatre. Engaging with critical discourse on masking and masquerade, the book provides a novel analysis of Behn’s mental conditionings, suggesting that these persisted despite the dissolution of the political divisions that once supported them. One of the thesis’s critical strengths lies in its refusal to confine Behn’s discourse to a rigid revolutionary/conservative dialectic, arguing against monolithic views and ideological reductionism. This work crafts a compelling narrative of cultural phenomena relevant to understanding the complexities of a self-contradictory artist like Behn.