Beyond Orientalism: Muslim Donusa and the "English Mastiffs" in Massinger's The Renegado
1. Introduction
While Said has pointed out in Orientalism that “the relationship between Occident and Orient is a relation of power, of domination, [and] of varying degrees of complex hegemony” (15), we must recognize the complex, and multifaceted ways in which the East was represented in a multitude of genres of literary discourse. We should recognize as well that the English experienced insoluble friction between the ideal of subduing Islam on one hand, and, on the other, the opportunistic mercantile aim of conducting trade with the Turk at Constantinople (Hoenselaars, 12). If the historical, economic, and political relationship between the English and the Ottoman Empire is fluid, multi-layered, and complex, so is the representation of Muslim women in Massinger's The Renegado. What Donusa implicates is not only a stereotypical image of Muslim women, but she also stands for the rebellious English woman. This paper discusses how in The Renegado, Massinger sets out to defeat Islam, and hence to overthrow …show more content…
Nevertheless, it was perhaps fear of women’s dissolute and disorderly natures that led playwrights to caricature them as the sexually rapacious Ottoman woman. A concern about women’s rebellion – and particularly their lustful appetite was a reason for considerable anxiety. After all, given “their sexual and emotional power”, women could easily “defy the patriarchal order and break its boundaries” (Richardson, 46). Carazie in The Renegado contends that the court ladies have become blatantly willful and so learned their lords cannot counter their argument that they be allowed a private lover. And that the courtiers, the ministers, and Parliament have become so benevolent to women’s sexual desires that in the next assembly they will pass a bill to allow women private
1. Introduction
While Said has pointed out in Orientalism that “the relationship between Occident and Orient is a relation of power, of domination, [and] of varying degrees of complex hegemony” (15), we must recognize the complex, and multifaceted ways in which the East was represented in a multitude of genres of literary discourse. We should recognize as well that the English experienced insoluble friction between the ideal of subduing Islam on one hand, and, on the other, the opportunistic mercantile aim of conducting trade with the Turk at Constantinople (Hoenselaars, 12). If the historical, economic, and political relationship between the English and the Ottoman Empire is fluid, multi-layered, and complex, so is the representation of Muslim women in Massinger's The Renegado. What Donusa implicates is not only a stereotypical image of Muslim women, but she also stands for the rebellious English woman. This paper discusses how in The Renegado, Massinger sets out to defeat Islam, and hence to overthrow …show more content…
Nevertheless, it was perhaps fear of women’s dissolute and disorderly natures that led playwrights to caricature them as the sexually rapacious Ottoman woman. A concern about women’s rebellion – and particularly their lustful appetite was a reason for considerable anxiety. After all, given “their sexual and emotional power”, women could easily “defy the patriarchal order and break its boundaries” (Richardson, 46). Carazie in The Renegado contends that the court ladies have become blatantly willful and so learned their lords cannot counter their argument that they be allowed a private lover. And that the courtiers, the ministers, and Parliament have become so benevolent to women’s sexual desires that in the next assembly they will pass a bill to allow women private