Honors Theses
Date of Award
2010
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Gregory Heyworth
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
In this thesis I examined the various perceptions and permutations of hybridity in the context of a collective Renaissance imagination. The success of this thesis depends on the adherence to and analysis of a clear definition of hybridity, both real and metaphorical, as established in the introduction. Once this definition was established, I considered the implications of hybridity on a collection of Renaissance bodies, exemplified in the vegetable bodies of the garden and the social group of the gypsies. By using an extensive sample of primary sources, including plays, contemporaneous popular manuals and guidebooks, short stories, laws, edicts, paintings and personal seals and badges, I was able to illustrate my definition of hybridity in its perceptions to a collective Renaissance These primary sources worked in conjunction with books and journal articles on my two sub-topics to support my hypothesis that hybridity, in the Renaissance mind, inherently defied control and social categorization and was therefore feared and maligned.
Recommended Citation
Doctor, Erin Elaine, "Nature's Bastards: Hybridity, Grafting and Miscegenation in the Renaissance Imagery" (2010). Honors Theses. 2320.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2320
Accessibility Status
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