Bundel essays over de constructie van het subject in de vroegmoderne periode. In de bijdragen wordt aandacht besteed aan: onderzoek naar de noodzaak van vroegmoderne, humanistische manieren van identificatie, interpretatie en geschiedschrijving, anatomische illustraties en visuele strategieën, gender en de constructie van innerlijkheid in het theater, een analyse van teksten van Margaret Cavendish, hekserij en literatuur, koloniale invloeden bij het schrijven van kookboeken, analyses worden gemaakt van The Tempest en A Midsummer Night's Dream van Shakespeare, vervolgens is er een bijdrage over de Joodse wet en vrouwelijke autonomie in het Engelse huwelijk van na de reformatie, over maagd-zijn als een manier van opstandigheid, ten slotte wordt aandacht besteed aan de relatie tussen feminisme en homoseksualiteit in de Engelse geschiedenis.
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 this companion. It explores issues vital to feminist inquiry, including race, sexuality, the body, queer politics, social economies, religion, and capitalism. Contributions: Introduction / Dympna Callaghan: Part I: The history of feminist Shakespeare criticism: 1. The ladies’ Shakespeare / Juliet Fleming: 2. Margaret Cavendish, Shakespeare critic / Katherine M. Romack: 3. Misogyny is everywhere / Phyllis Rackin: Part II Text and Language: 4. Feminist editing and the body of the text / Laurie E. Maguire: 5. “Made to write ‘whore’ upon?”: male and female use of the word “whore” in Shakespeare’s canon / Kay Stanton: 6. “A word, sweet Lucrece”: confession, feminism, and the rape of Lucrece / Margo Hendricks: Part III Social Economies: 7. Gender, class, and the ideology of comic form: much ado about nothing and Twelfth Night / Mihoko Suzuki: 8. Gendered “gifts” in Shakespeare’s Belmont: the economies of exchange in Early Modern England / Jyotsna G. Singh: Part IV Race and Colonialism: 9. The great Indian vanishing trick – colonialism, property, and the family in a Midsummer Night’s Dream / Ania Loomba: 10. Black Ram, white Ewe: Shakespeare, race, and women / Joyce Green MacDonald: 11. Sycorax in Algiers: cultural politics and gynecology in Early Modern England / Rachana Sachdev: 12. Black and White, and Dread All Over: The Shakespeare Theatre’s “Photonegative” Othello and the Body of Desdemona / Denise Albanese: Part V Performing Sexuality: 13. Women and boys playing Shakespeare / Juliet Dusinberre: 14. Mutant scenes and “minor” conflicts in Richard II / Molly Smith: 15. Lovesickness, gender, and subjectivity: Twelfth Night and As You Like It / Carol Thomas Neely: 16. … in the Lesbian Void: Woman–Woman Eroticism in Shakespeare’s Plays / Theodora A. Jankowski: 17. Duncan’s Corpse / Susan Zimmerman: Part VI Religion: 18. Others and Lovers in The Merchant of Venice / M. Lindsay Kaplan: 19. Between Idolatry and Astrology: Modes of Temporal Repetition in Romeo and Juliet / Philippa Berry: Part VII Character, Genre, History: 20. Putting on the Destined Livery: Isabella, Cressida, and our Virgin/Whore Obsession / Anna Kamaralli: 21. The Virginity Dialogue in All’s Well That Ends Well: Feminism, Editing, and Adaptation / Rory Loughnane: 22. Competitive Mourning and Female Agency in Richard III / Mario DiGangi: 23. Bearing Death in The Winter’s Tale / Amy K. Burnette: 24. Monarchs Who Cry: The Gendered Politics of Weeping in the English History Play / Jean E. Howard: 25. Shakespeare’s Women and the Crisis of Beauty / Farah Karim-Cooper: Part VIII Appropriating Women, Appropriating Shakespeare: 26. Women and Land: Henry VIII / Lisa Hopkins: 27. Desdemona: Toni Morrison’s Response to Othello / Ayanna Thompson: 28. Woman-Crafted Shakespeares: Appropriation, Intermediality, and Womanist Aesthetics / Sujata Iyengar: 29. A Thousand Voices: Performing Ariel / Amanda Eubanks Winkler.