Early Modern Hermaphrodites: Sex and Other Stories

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From the 16th century to the 18th century, hermaphrodites were discussed and depicted in a range of artistic, mythol mythological, scientific and erotic contexts. This title looks at some of those representations to explore the stories they tell about ambiguous sex and gender in early modern England. Gilbert examines the often contradictory ways in which hermaphrodites were represented as both spiritual ideals and sexual grotesques as freaks, erotic objects and medical curiosities’ and as literary metaphors and signs of social decay.