Paper Topic and Secondary Resources

For the paper I focused on gender transference in The Merchant of Venice. In particular, I focused on Portia and Jessica and how they are able to successfully subvert their gender roles through the intervention of Bassanio and Lorenzo. I analyzed this through the use of the casket as symbol for the womb and their cross-dressing as means of escape. In contrast are the characters of Antonio and Shylock, who are not able to subvert their traditional roles.

Sources I used:
Abate, Corinne S. “’Nerissa Teaches Me What to Believe’: Portia’s Wifely Empowerment in The Merchant of Venice.” The Merchant of Venice: New Critical Essays. Ed. John W. Mahon and Ellen Macleod Mahon. New York: Routledge, 2002. 283-304. Print.

Adelman, Janet. “Her Father’s Blood: Race, Conversion, and Nation in The Merchant of Venice.” Representations 81 (2003): 4-30. JSTOR. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

Adelman, Janet. Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in The Merchant of Venice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Print.

Metzger, Mary Janell. “‘Now by My Hood, a Gentle and No Jew’: Jessica, The Merchant of Venice, and the Discourse of Early Modern English Identity.” PMLA 113.1 (1998): 52-63. JSTOR. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

Oldrieve, Susan. “Marginalized Voices in The Merchant of Venice.” Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature 5.1 (1993): 87-105. JSTOR. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.