Customer Reviews

Feminist Companion to Shakespeare

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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.

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.