ABSTRACT
Chapter 2, ‘Hell’s Pantomimicks: Violence and Liminal Gender in the Festive and Everyday Worlds’, examines fascination with, and fear of, those who cross gender boundaries or inhabit spaces between established genders, looking at Spenser’s and Shakespeare’s treatment of eunuchs, Amazons, androgynes, and hermaphrodites within a broader cultural context. It argues that liminality within literature surpasses the role of festivity in propping up the status quo and provides a lasting or recurring space for gender variance. However, it is impossible altogether to escape the violence of festive space owing to the underlying cultural association of liminality with the ultimate space of death and dying.
