Shakespeare Without Women

by Callaghan,Dympna

• ISBN13: 9780415202312
• ISBN10: 0415202310
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Shakespeare Without Womenis a controversial study of female impersonation, and the connections between dramatic and political representation in Shakespeare's plays. In this exhilarating and challenging book, Callaghan focuses on the implications of absence and exclusion in several of Shakespeare's works: *the exclusion of the female body fromTwelfth Night *the impersonation of the female voice in the original performances of the plays *racial impersonation inOthello *echoes of the removal of the Gaelic Irish inTheTempest *the absence of women on stage and in public life as shown inA Midsummer Night's Dream.

Author Biography

Dympna Callaghan is currently William P. Tolley Professor in the Humanities at Syracuse University, New York.

Table of Contents

List of plates	viii
General editor's preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction: Cleopatra had a way with her	1	(25)
``And all is semblative a woman's part'': Body politics and Twelfth Night	26	(23)
The castrator's song: Female impersonation on the early modern stage	49	(26)
``Othello was a white man'': Properties of race on Shakespeare's stage	75	(22)
Irish memories in The Tempest	97	(42)
What is an audience	139	(27)
Notes	166	(21)
Bibliography	187	(23)
Index	210