Cross-dressing in literature

"The current popularity of cross-dressing as a theme in art and
criticism represents, I think, an undertheorized recognition of the
necessary critique of binary thinking, whether particularized as
male and female, black and white, yes and no, Republican and
Democrat, self and other, or in any other way."
—Marjorie Garber, 1991^[1]

Mr Rochester disguised as a Gypsy woman in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Cross-dressing in literature has been studied by many literary and cultural critics.^[1]

As a theme

• Þrymskviða from the Poetic Edda - Thor dresses as a bride and Loki as the bridesmaid to retrieve Thor's hammer Mjölnir.
• The Famous Five book series (1942) - Georgiana wears boy's clothes, prefers to be called "George" and is pleased to be mistaken for a boy.
• The Rose of Versailles (1972) - The felmale protagonist, Oscar François de Jarjayes, dresses as a man, but privately acknowledges her feminine side.
• Johnny, My Friend (a translation of the Swedish novel Janne, min vän from 1985) - Johnny is a girl disguising as a boy.

As a minor plot element

• Jane Eyre (1847) - Mr Rochester dresses as a Gypsy woman.
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) - Huckleberry dresses as a girl and calls himself Sarah Williams.
• The Two Towers (of The Lord of the Rings) (1954 or 1955) - Éowyn disguises as the man Dernhelm and travells with the Riders of Rohan to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

See also

• Cross-dressing in film and television

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "from Vested Interests: Cross-dressing & Cultural Anxiety (1991)", Marjorie Garber, 1991. Retrieved 21 September 2011.