Name: Stephanie Bahr

Title: “Textual Proliferation, Interpretation and Sexual Violence in Books I & II of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene”

In the proem for Book II of The Faerie Queene, Spenser worries that FQ will “Of some th’aboundance of an ydle braine / will iuged be, and painted forgery” (proem 2.1.3-4). This speaks to two of Spenser’s recurring concerns: the issue of “aboundance,” of meaning, of (printed) circulation, of (mis)interpretation; and that of “painted forgery,” with its connotations of deceit, whorishness, sin and idolatry. In Books I and II of Fareie Queene, these anxieties over interpretation, representation, and textual proliferation manifest repeatedly in grotesque sexuality and violence: Error and her monstrous brood; Archimago and the sluttish False Una; and Duessa as lady love, witch and finally dismissed rape victim. Although Spenser upholds the validity of literary endeavor, like Sidney, Spenser predicates it on moral instruction which hinges on a right reading. If this reading destroyed by misinterpretation, however, the text not only fails to instruct, it may lead the reader astray and thus make Spenser no better than his wicked creation, Archimago. In my paper I explore the ways anxiety over proliferation and interpretation is sexualized and brutalized as Spenser seeks to maintain interpretive control of Faerie Queene and create right readings of his text which, though fictional, ought never to deceive.