A Symbolic Sense of Transvestism in the Renaissance Novels

르네상스 소설에서의 복장전도가 갖는 상징적 의미

This article is concerned about the symbolic meaning of the transvestism Renaissance perspective through analysis of Triumph Over Persecution work and The Merchant of Venice, and Jealous Ioan Tornese. The transvestism is frequently present in the comedies of the golden age. A woman author Maria de Zayas has a special interest in female identity with critical and defying view. Also the subject of the transvestism in Spanish literature originated in Italian tradition. In Italian literature, there were two types of disguised women, who urge for love and warrior-heroine(amazon). Both types are also listed in Spanish literature. The dress-crossing heroine of Triumph Over Persecution displays a type of heroine, who corrects a male prejudice and reset a harmonious order. Shakespeare is also one of the Renaissance writers under the influence of the Italian Renaissance novel. Heroine of Merchant of Venice symbolizes a triumphant challenge against the blocks of the patriarchal system. In spite of the social system blocks, cross-dressing women may receive in the patriarchal scenes without problems. Based on the notion of paradox and irony, the Italian novel reflects popular psychology of the time when the link between the internal identity and social outside puts into question. The cross-dressing Torneses' wife, symbolizes the mockery or renaissance deception. Their deception emphasis on an ironic way in the point view of inhuman man who consider women material belongs to the man without any free-will. The costume of the characters make it possible to change their original identity into the other. From this point of view, we can say that the transvestism in these works could be interpreted in two ways: first, the destruction of the traditional categories of women's identity and second, the burlesque contempt on the patriarchal renaissance society.