Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender

by Garner, Shirley Nelson; Sprengnether, Madelon G.

• ISBN13: 9780253210272
• ISBN10: 0253210275
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-03-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"... an important volume for scholar and student alike, and a tribute to the enduring contributions of its authors." -- Renaissance Quarterly"These thought-provoking essays run the gamut of feminist criticism on tragedy." -- Shakespeare Quarterly"Highly recommended... " -- ChoiceThese essays mount a powerful critique of the tragic hero as representative of the errors and sufferings of humankind. They come from a variety of perspectives -- including feminist new historicism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and autobiographical criticism. While considering Shakespeare's earliest attempts at tragedy in Richard III and Titus Andronicus, this volume also covers the major tragic period, giving special attention to Othello.

Author Biography

SHIRLEY NELSON GARNER is Professor and Chair of English at the University of Minnesota. She is a co-editor, with Claire Kahane and Madelon Sprengnether, of The (M)other Tongue: Essays in Feminist Psychoanalytic Interpretation; and a contributor to the Personal Narratives Group's Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives. MADELON SPRENGNETHER is Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of The Spectral Mother: Freud, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis and co-editor of Revising the Word and the World: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism and The (M)other Tongue.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Gendered Subject of Shakespearean Tragedy	p. 1
History into Tragedy: The Case of Richard III	p. 31
A Woman of Letters: Lavinia in Titus Andronicus	p. 54
"Documents in Madness": Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare's Tragedies and Early Modern Culture	p. 75
"Born of Woman": Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth	p. 105
"Magic of bounty": Timon of Athens, Jacobean Patronage, and Maternal Power	p. 135
Desdemona's Disposition	p. 171
"The Moor of Venice," or the Italian on the Renaissance English Stage	p. 193
The Heroics of Marriage in Othello and The Duchess of Malfi	p. 210
The Fatal Cleopatra	p. 241
What's Love Got to Do with It? Reading the Liberal Humanist Romance in Antony and Cleopatra	p. 268
Shakespeare in My Time and Place	p. 287
Leaving Shakespeare	p. 307
Notes on Contributors	p. 317
Index	p. 321
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