“Allegorical Consent: The Faerie Queene and the Politics of Erotic Subjection.”
ResearchPaper
EnglishJeffrey B. Griswold
This article examines The Faerie Queene’s use of erotic subjection as a political metaphor for theorizing the relation between conquest and consent.In the Radigund episode of Book V, Spenser explores the gender dynamics of this trope, as the subjected body is male and the monarch, female. These scenes act as a powerful counter-narrative to the poem’s earlier representations of erotic subjection by showing that external obedience cannot be equated with consent. Radigund forces Artegall to wear women’s clothing and to do women’s work, but this submission constitutes nothing more than slavery. The narrative blends political domination with sexual conquest to demonstrate that compliance is not loyalty and violence cannot elicit love.“Allegorical Consen…Faculty62941Spenser Studies