Middleton’s Sexy Clocks
摘要
Whereas the second chapter gives a broad overview of Middleton’s depictions of clocks and establishes the historical context of those representations, this chapter offers a sustained and comprehensive reading of two plays, A Mad World My Masters and The Roaring Girl. Both these narratives center around clocks. In The Roaring Girl, Moll’s decision not to steal a watch spoils Alexander’s plan to keep her from marrying his son. In A Mad World, Follywit steals his grandfather’s watch, and when caught, his plans are revealed. Each plot turns on the acceptance or rejection of clocks. These choices are reflective of their broader time consciousness. Since, as established in the first chapter, these decisions are not forced on subjects through global, hegemonic capitalism, Middleton offers his characters agency over their temporality even as that choice is embedded in the broader economic formation of reproductive futurity. Here I draw on queer theory and disability study’s theorizations of chrononormativity, which explores how heteronormative visions of time privilege reproduction and focus on the future generation. Each of these plays uses chronometry to explore how characters move in and out of chrononormativity. Moll rejects clocks because she rejects and does not inhabit a chrononormative temporality, whereas Follywit desires clocks because he yearns for a reproductive futurity that is being denied him by his grandfather. Other characters, like Frank the Courtesan, provide points of contrast with alienating temporality. By utilizing older forms of chronometry, like hourglasses, these characters demonstrate how embodied temporality is linked to control over one’s own sexuality and reproductive role in society.