Paradigms Found: Feminist, Gay, and New Historicist Readings of ShakespeareParadigms Found is an indispensable book for students and teachers of Shakespeare, and for anyone interested in the diverse ways in which his plays are read and taught at the start of the twenty-first century. It traces the paradigm shift in Shakespeare studies which, beginning in the 1970s, has foregrounded the playwright's embeddedness in the material practices and ideological constructs of his time, and focussed on the conflicts, gaps and faultlines in early modern society. The book concentrates on feminism and new historicism as the two critical schools that have brought about significant changes in Shakespeare studies, and devotes a chapter to issues in early modern culture and drama highlighted by gay scholars. Topics covered include: contrasting views on the position of Renaissance women, material feminist criticism, Renaissance attacks and defences of women, the maternal body, boy actors, myths of homosexual desire, theatrical transvestism, the role of anecdotes in new historicist practice, self-fashioning, subversion, anxiety and wonder. In tracking the shifting interests of feminist, gay and new historicist critics, Paradigms Found demonstrates the explanatory power of the new approaches, discusses their limitations and places them in the context of developments in society and the academy. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 24
Page 10
... comedies . The plays privileged were the comedies in general , Othello among the tragedies , and The Winter's Tale among the romances . Early feminist criticism also addressed a question that has lost significance over the years ...
... comedies . The plays privileged were the comedies in general , Othello among the tragedies , and The Winter's Tale among the romances . Early feminist criticism also addressed a question that has lost significance over the years ...
Page 11
... comedies , notably Shakespeare's . Although Dusinberre's argument is attractive , later scholars have taken issue with the radical break she posits between Puritan discourses on marriage and previous Christian discourses , and have ...
... comedies , notably Shakespeare's . Although Dusinberre's argument is attractive , later scholars have taken issue with the radical break she posits between Puritan discourses on marriage and previous Christian discourses , and have ...
Page 13
... comedies , Anne Barton cautions about the presence of " a powerful element of fantasy , of literary license , in the adventures and the freedom allowed Rosalind , Portia , or Helena , just as there is in the imaginary exploits of ...
... comedies , Anne Barton cautions about the presence of " a powerful element of fantasy , of literary license , in the adventures and the freedom allowed Rosalind , Portia , or Helena , just as there is in the imaginary exploits of ...
Page 14
... framed within a patriarchal order posited as pervasive and a - historical . As far as genre is concerned , the division between women in comedies and in tragedies is foregrounded . If some of the essays show a 14 Paradigms Found.
... framed within a patriarchal order posited as pervasive and a - historical . As far as genre is concerned , the division between women in comedies and in tragedies is foregrounded . If some of the essays show a 14 Paradigms Found.
Page 16
... comedies ( Neely 1980 : 214 ) . But whereas in the comedies women " prepare the way for the harmonious endings symbolized by the consummation of a marriage " , in Othello " the men's murderous fancies are untouched by the women's ...
... comedies ( Neely 1980 : 214 ) . But whereas in the comedies women " prepare the way for the harmonious endings symbolized by the consummation of a marriage " , in Othello " the men's murderous fancies are untouched by the women's ...
Contents
5 | |
9 | |
The Turn to History in Feminist Studies | 23 |
Maternal Subtexts | 43 |
Gay Interventions | 53 |
The Critic as StoryTeller | 71 |
The Pastoral of Power | 83 |
Social Energy and Renaissance Drama | 99 |
The Contest of Paradigms | 127 |
145 | |
155 | |
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Paradigms Found: Feminist, Gay, and New Historicist Readings of Shakespeare Pilar Hidalgo Limited preview - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
Adelman analysis anecdote anti-theatrical pamphlets Antony and Cleopatra anxiety arguments Barroll boy actor central century chapter comedies concept contemporary context criticism of Shakespeare critique cross-dressing cultural Desdemona discourse Dusinberre Dusinberre's E. M. W. Tillyard early modern Elizabethan Emphasis England English Literary Renaissance essay European fantasy female characters femininity feminism feminist criticism formal controversy genre Goldberg Grady Greenblatt Hamlet Henry heterosexual historical historicism historicist homoerotic homosexual Howard Iago identity ideological Invisible Bullets issue Jardine King Lear Levin male friendship Marlowe Marlowe's marriage masculine material materialist McLuskie misogynistic misogyny Montrose mother Neely Norton Orgel Othello paradigm pastoral perceives perspective playwright political position present privileged psychoanalytic Queen radical reading reification relationship Renaissance drama Renaissance literature Renaissance Self-Fashioning Renaissance studies role scholars sexuality Shakespeare Shakespeare's plays social sodomy Spenser stage subversion textual theatre theatrical theory traditional tragedies transvestism transvestite transvestite women Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night woman Woodbridge
Popular passages
Page 16 - Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.