Honors Program
Honors in English
Date of Award
5-2022
Thesis Professor(s)
Joshua S. Reid
Thesis Professor Department
Literature and Language
Thesis Reader(s)
Phyllis A. Thompson
Abstract
Women’s subjugation to the objectification of men is a traced theme throughout the history of Western culture. In this thesis, the attributes of the male gaze will be explored via the patriarchal pioneers of literature: Dante to Petrarch to Shakespeare. The solidification of the male gaze takes place during the late middle ages as Dante Alighieri writes an infatuated love for Beatrice throughout La Vita Nuova and Inferno, demonstrating the virgin-whore dichotomy with Francesca. Similarly, Francesco Petrarch’s poetry of Rime Sparse describes the objectification and dismantling of woman for erotic pleasure and patriarchal power. The shift from early to late renaissance displays William Shakespeare’s presentation of women in Titus Andronicus, Othello, and Hamlet as a denunciation of women through the male gaze. These themes of patriarchy developed throughout historic literature will help us analyze media advertisements today as women are silenced, dismembered, and exhibited through the male gaze.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Moore, Leah, "The Past and Present: Issues of Male Patriarchy Throughout Historic Literature and Dominance in Media Today" (2022). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 707. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/707
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
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