RENAISSANCE RHETORIC AND MALE GAZE: DECONSTRUCTING SPENSER'S EPITHALAMION THROUGH FEMINIST STYLISTICS

Abstract

This study presents Feminist stylistics of Edmund Spenser Epithalamion (1595), a Renaissance marriage poem that has been praised down the ages because of its elegance and lyrical beauty as well as its elevation of spirituality of union to marriage. Although usually taken as a kind of celebration of love and harmony, the poem is re-viewed here in the light of Feminist stylistics (1995) by Sara Mills to consider the formation of concepts of gender roles and subjectivity of women in the text. Observing its close textual and linguistic analysis, the research reveals the role of style functions in idealizing the bride and at the same time limiting her agency as she was defined by stylistic device, e.g. repetition, metaphor and narrative structure. The bride comes out as a mute figure placed within the male speaker gaze and desires and marks both spiritual purity and physical possession. This bilateral manifestation strengthens patriarchal principles that are contained in the Renaissance literature. The paper will conclude that Epithalamion (1595) with its note of celebration is involved in ideological work of sustaining gender hierarchies, which explains the value of feminist stylistic ethics in the re-evaluation of canonical works.