A Country In Between
The two pieces that make up A Country In Between celebrate gender diversity in literature and history.
Shakespeare’s young lover
Most of Shakespeare’s love sonnets were addressed to a youth the bard described strikingly as “the master-mistress of my passion”. The first piece in this collection is a sonnet cycle that begins from the question: how would the “fair youth” respond to the bard?
Gender rebel
“Jean[ne]” is based very closely on the transcript of the trial where Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) was condemned for dressing and acting as a man. The piece channels the source material while reclaiming subversive elements often missing or downplayed.
An excerpt from “Master Mistress”:
Cobbe portrait of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624) by Montedicapo is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Joan of Arc depicted on horseback in an illustration from a 1504 manuscript is in the public domain.
