ABSTRACT
When scholars turned their focus to early modern crossdressing in the 1980s, they likely did not anticipate the urgency and relevance that this area of research might acquire in the twenty-first century, as we witness the emergence of a post-binary culture among the demographic now known as Generation Z. This chapter discusses the development of an undergraduate course on crossdressing in early modern drama, in which Middleton and Dekker's The Roaring Girl serves as a key text. The course explores crossdressing as a theatrical practice, plot device, literary subject, cultural fantasy, and historical phenomenon. With its London setting and quasi-biographical protagonist, The Roaring Girl serves as an intriguing counterpoint to the Shakespearean plays featuring cross-dressed characters. Middleton and Dekker's play is constructed so as to provide not only a relatively conventional romantic plot (the story of Sebastian and Mary Fitzallard) but also a commentary on that norm, delivered by a character who openly rejects that plot for herself. As this chapter shows, The Roaring Girl has the potential to speak to the emergent post-binary culture, as the play offers a surprisingly complex picture of the ways gender identity and erotic desire were negotiated through clothing in the early seventeenth century, on-stage, in the marketplace, and on London streets.
