Žensko za muško i muško za žensko u starijoj hrvatskoj dramatici
Woman instaed of Man and Man instaed of Woman in Old Croatian Drama

Summary/Abstract: Cross-dressing, as a culturally scandalous performative image which blurs the boundaries of accepted social perception of gender identities, is a rare one in the corpus of old Croatian drama. However, the rare existent examples are an interesting interpretative topic, particularly having in view the indisputable partial transvestite character of theatrical performances based on these texts, which was due to the absence of actresses on the Croatian stage. The absence of women players on the Croatian stage has remained a largely accepted hypothesis, though some theatre historians contest it. The issue surely demands more research, particularly concerning the actual reception of both fictive and performative transvestite images, i. e. men playing women parts in at least most cases. The aim of this study is to analyse cross-dressing as it is inscribed in the dramatic structure and to regard it as a semantically productive and poetically valued topos, especially in the context of complications that arise in performative interpretation of an all-male production.

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