Dympna Callaghan

The question is not whether Shakespeare studies needs feminism, but whether feminism needs Shakespeare. This is the explicitly political approach taken by all-women team of contributors to A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare.

A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare

Jyotsna G. Singh

Lorraine Helms

In this fresh alternative to traditional Shakespeare studies, Dympna Callaghan, Lorraine Helms, and Jyotsna Singh address Shakespeare's works in terms of, amongst other things, the feminist history of sexuality, the ideology of romantic love, and feminist interventions in performance. Their objective is to produce new interpretations of the plays by locating them at the intersections of a range of contemporary critical, theoretical, and cultural practices.

Shakespeare and Feminist Politics

The Weyward Sisters

A new study of Shakespeare’s life and times, which illuminates our understanding and appreciation of his works. Combines an accessible fully historicised treatment of both the life and the plays, suited to both undergraduate and popular audiences Looks at 24 of the most significant plays and the sonnets through the lens of various aspects of Shakespeare’s life and historical environment Addresses four of the most significant issues that shaped Shakespeare’s career: education, religion, social status, and theatre Examines theatre as an institution and the literary environment of early modern London Explains and dispatches conspiracy theories about authorship

An Introduction to the Life and Works

Who Was William Shakespeare?

A lively exploration of Shakespeare’s poems and how they speak to readers Reading Shakespeare’s Poetry presents a fresh interpretation of Shakespeare’s non-dramatic poems, providing insights into the individual poems, their themes and composition, and their relation to the cultural context of Shakespeare’s world. With an engaging narrative style, author Dympna Callaghan illustrates the ways Shakespeare’s poetry often converges with reality yet remains distinct from dramatic verse and the language of everyday life. Presented chronologically, easily accessible chapters examine Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, the Sonnets, and A Lover’s Complaint. Special attention is paid to the distinctive ways in which lineation, rhyme, verse forms, and meter serve to delineate or erase the boundaries of Shakespeare’s poetry. Throughout the book, the author explains how Shakespeare’s language is influenced by predecessors such as Ovid and Petrarch while highlighting how ideas about the social and cultural function of poetry permeate Shakespeare’s works. Helps readers gain a better understanding of Shakespeare’s poems Explore how themes and composition of poetry are infused into Shakespeare’s works Addresses the significance of the material form in which Shakespeare’s poems appear Includes a discussion of songs, poems, and sonnets embedded in Shakespeare’s dramatic verse Reading Shakespeare’s Poetry is a must-have book for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and general readers alike.

Reading Shakespeare's Poetry

Valerie Traub

Frederick G L Huetwell Professor of English and Women's Studies Valerie Traub

M. Lindsay Kaplan

Callaghan Dympna

How did the events of the early modern period affect the way gender and the self were represented? This collection of essays attempts to respond to this question by analysing a wide spectrum of cultural concerns - humanism, technology, science, law, anatomy, literacy, domesticity, colonialism, erotic practices, and the theatre - in order to delineate the history of subjectivity and its relationship with the postmodern fragmented subject. The scope of this analysis expands the terrain explored by feminist theory, while its feminist focus reveals that the subject is always gendered - although the terms in which gender is conceived and represented change across history. Feminist Readings of Early Modern Culture not only explores the representation of gendered subjects, but in its commitment to balancing the productive tensions of methodological diversity, also speaks to contemporary challenges facing feminism.

Emerging Subjects

Feminist Readings of Early Modern Culture

A new type of study guide which combines an exploration of Shakespeare's language with specific help for students looking to develop their own critical responses and skills. This lively and informative guide uses close reading of Hamlet's complex language to explore its themes and plot.

Hamlet: Language and Writing

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Shakespeare Without Women

This lively and informative guide reveals Hamlet as marking a turning point in Shakespeare's use of language and dramatic form as well as addressing the key problem at the play's core: Hamlet's inaction. It also looks at recent critical approaches to the play and its theatre history, including the recent David Tennant / RSC Hamlet on both stage and TV screen.

The question is not whether Shakespeare studies needs feminism, but whether feminism needs Shakespeare. This is the explicitly political approach taken in the dynamic and newly updated edition of A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare. Provides the definitive feminist statement on Shakespeare for the 21st century Updates address some of the newest theatrical andcreative engagements with Shakespeare, offering fresh insights into Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and gender dynamics in early modern England Contributors come from across the feminist generations and from various stages in their careers to address what is new in the field in terms of historical and textual discovery Explores issues vital to feminist inquiry, including race, sexuality, the body, queer politics, social economies, religion, and capitalism In addition to highlighting changes, it draws attention to the strong continuities of scholarship in this field over the course of the history of feminist criticism of Shakespeare The previous edition was a recipient of a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award; this second edition maintains its coverage and range, and bringsthe scholarship right up to the present day

In The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster reworked the idea of a female tragic protagonist explored in his earlier and less well-received play The White Devil. In the play, which is still much performed today, Webster addresses questions of court corruption, political scandal and the most important issue of the status of women in Jacobean England. This selection of essays looks at many of the issues that are raised by The Duchess of Malfi, including marriage and morality, sexual politics and female sexuality, providing analyses of this quintessential Jacobean tragedy.

John Webster

The Duchess of Malfi

Shakespeare Without Womenis a controversial study of female impersonation and the connections between dramatic and political representation in Shakespeare's plays.

Representing Gender and Race on the Renaissance Stage

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Who Was William Shakespeare

This introduction provides a concise overview of the central issues and critical responses to Shakespeare’s sonnets, looking at the themes, images, and structure of his work, as well as the social and historical circumstances surrounding their creation. Explores the biographical mystery of the identities of the characters addressed. Examines the intangible aspects of each sonnet, such as eroticism and imagination. A helpful appendix offers a summary of each poem with descriptions of key literary figures.

Dympna Callaghan

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