Liminal Agency: Texts, Textiles, and Gendered Performance in the Courtship Narrative of The Two Gentlemen of Verona

This paper argues that The Two Gentlemen of Verona has a more complex relationship with gender roles than previous critical commentaries on the play have tended to suggest. Using a theoretical framework which associates the courtship narrative with the patterns of action associated with liminal spaces, the paper argues that within the space between maiden and wife, Julia is able to express sexual agency and is gradually able to associate this agency with femininity. The paper is especially focused on moments in which Julia interacts with material texts and the way that her role as reader, writer, and interpreter gives her a way to recreate herself as a sexual agent.