Novy, Marianne. Shakespeare and feminist theory

Folger bibliographic ID: 352773
Folger call number: PR2991 .N68 2017
Folger holdings ID: 501329

Are Shakespeare's plays dramatizations of patriarchy or representations of assertive and eloquent women? Or are they sometimes both? And is it relevant, and if so how, that his women were first played by boys? This book shows how many kinds of feminist theory help analyze the dynamics of Shakespeare's plays. Both feminist theory and the plays deal with issues such as likeness and difference between the sexes, the complexity of relationships between women, the liberating possibilities of desire, what marriage means and how much women can remake it, how women can use and expand their culture's ideas of motherhood and of women's work, and how women can have power through language. This lively exploration of these and related issues is an ideal introduction to the field of feminist readings of Shakespeare

General notes

Are Shakespeare's plays dramatizations of patriarchy or representations of assertive and eloquent women? Or are they sometimes both? And is it relevant, and if so how, that his women were first played by boys? This book shows how many kinds of feminist theory help analyze the dynamics of Shakespeare's plays. Both feminist theory and the plays deal with issues such as likeness and difference between the sexes, the complexity of relationships between women, the liberating possibilities of desire, what marriage means and how much women can remake it, how women can use and expand their culture's ideas of motherhood and of women's work, and how women can have power through language. This lively exploration of these and related issues is an ideal introduction to the field of feminist readings of Shakespeare Includes bibliographical references and index

Contents

Introduction -- Likeness and difference -- Desire -- Motherhood -- Language -- Between women

Extended title: Shakespeare and feminist theory / Marianne Novy

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Feminism and literature Women in literature England

author: Novy, Marianne, 1945-
subject: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616