Feminist Companion to Shakespeare [Hardcover]

Dympna Callaghan (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631208062 | ISBN-13: 978-0631208068 | Publication Date: August 16, 2000 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries Award 2001 for Outstanding Academic Title.

"These 19 original essays reveal the exciting range of inquiry within the feminist community of early-modern scholars . . . the anthology excels in offering clear statements about the implications of feminist practice and absolutely up-to-date scholarship . . . This excellent volume should become a classic of feminist Shakespeare criticism". Choice.

"A feisty collection of articles - all by women - intensely critical of patriarchal control of the Bard and how that has underpinned Western social injustices". Times Literary Supplement.

From the Back Cover

The question is not whether Shakespeare studies needs feminism, but whether feminism needs Shakespeare. The all-women team of contributors to A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare argues that not only is Shakespeare important for women, his works are specifically important for feminism.

The collected essays address issues vital to feminist inquiry such as race, sexuality, the body, queer politics, and the advent of capitalism, but also appropriate ground that has been hitherto regarded as terrain hostile to feminism, such as textual editing and theatre history.

Contributors include both influential voices in the field and new feminist scholars offering fresh and exciting insights. Each contributor is committed to providing beginning students (both female and male) with an accessible foundation for study, while negotiating for the more advanced reader the urgent issues of the field.

A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare is the first feminist statement on Shakespeare for the 21st century.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Blackwell; 1 edition (August 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631208062
• ISBN-13: 978-0631208068
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,333,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely feminist perspectives against Shakespeare, August 31, 2007

By 

Michelle (Hagerstown, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) (Paperback)

This book is helpful to understanding the view of feminists who support idea of Shakespeare as a misogynist, but you get no other feminist viewpoint of him. Everything in this book supports the idea of Shakespeare's misogyny-- a position with which I disagree, because I believe that Shakespeare is a champion of women. I wrote a 40 page, graduate school level paper that clearly illustrated how he is NOT a misogynist, and got a 100% on it-- but I digress.

This book is a must have for any serious Shakespeare scholar who wants to be familiar with feminist sentiments against the bard. Just be aware that there also exists feminists who do NOT believe that Shakespeare was a misogynist, and none of their essays appear in this book. The title is misleading in making it sound as though all feminists have the same viewpoint, as is the undiversified content of it. No opinion against Shakespeare's alleged misogyny is included in the book. I give it three stars because it lacks fully one half of the feminist perspective. You can be feminist and not see him as a misogynyist, and there are other books out there that you will need to buy to get the complete picture.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Table of Contents, September 5, 2008

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) (Paperback)

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 Theater'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: MollySmith.
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 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.

Index.