Shakespeare, Feminism and Gender

by Kate Chedgzoy

Overview

Over the last quarter-century, feminist criticism of Shakespeare has greatly expanded and enriched the range of interpretations of the Shakespearean texts, their original historical location, and subsequent reinterpretation. Characteristically it weaves between past and present, driven by a commitment both to intervene in contemporary cultural politics and to recover a fuller sense of the sexual politics of the literary heritage. Collecting together essays which offer detailed accounts of particular plays with others that take a broader overview of the field, this Casebook showcases the range of critical strategies used by feminist criticism, and illustrates how vital attention to the politics of gender and sexuality is to a full understanding and appreciation of Shakespearean drama.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350310261
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	12/05/2000
Series:	New Casebooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	269
File size:	717 KB

About the Author

KATE CHEDGZOY is Reader in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.
KATE CHEDGZOY is Reader in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
General Editor's Preface
Introduction; K. Chedgzoy
The Patriarchal Bard: Feminist Criticism and Shakespeare: King Lear and Measure for Measure; K. McLuskie
Feminist Theory and the Editing of Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew Revisited; A. Thompson
Woman's Alternative Shakespeares and Women's Alternatives to Shakespeare in Contemporary British Theatre; L. Goodman
Gender and Nation: Anticipations of Modernity in the Second Tetralogy; J.E. Howard&P. Rackin
How to Read The Merchant of Venice without being Heterosexist; A. Sinfield
The Homoerotics of Shakespearean Comedy; V. Traub
Mourning and Misogyny: Hamlet and the Final Progress of Elizabeth I; S. Mullaney
He Do Cressida in Different Voices; B. Hodgdon
Revolutions, Petty Tyranny and the Murderous Husband; F. Dolan
Macbeth and the All-singing, All-dancing Plays of the Jacobean Witch-Vogue; D. Purkiss
The Colour of Patriarchy: Critical Difference, Cultural Difference and Renaissance Drama; A. Loomba
Further Reading
Notes on Contributors
Index.

Editorial Reviews

Chedgzoy (Renaissance literature, U. of Newcastle upon Tyne) describes this collection of essays from the 1990s as a snapshot of a decade when feminist criticism of Shakespeare's plays both flourished and diversified. It covers a range of widely studied texts while showing how gender-inflected criticism has been part of a revision of the Shakespearean canon. Chedgzoy selected the essays to demonstrate a variety of critical and theoretical approaches and to give a sense of the breadth of intellectual and political concerns with which feminist criticism of Shakespeare has engaged. The 12 contributors are academics from the UK and US. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews