Comic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in ShakespeareStanford University Press, 1982 M06 1 - 212 pages This book proceeds from the assumption that Shakespeare, so often perceived as the one writer who appears to have transcended the limits of gender, inevitably writes from the perspective of his own gender. From this perspective, whatever represents the Self is necessarily male; and the Other, which challenges the Self, is female. The author's approach gives us a fresh understanding of both Shakespeare's characters and the structure of the plays. The author defines genre in terms of the nature of the challenge offered by the Other to the Self. Using specific plays and characters of Shakespeare, the author shows how in tragedy the Other betrays or appears to betray the Self; in comedy the Other evades the social hierarchies dominated by versions of the male Self; in romance the Other comes and goes, leaving the Self bereft when she is gone and astounding him with happiness when she reappears. History is defined as a genre in which the masculine heroes confront no challenge from the Other but only from each other, from other versions of the Self. The book consists of a long theoretical introduction followed by chapters on comedy, history, and some individual plays: Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and The Tempest. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 54
Page 5
... never the former and only irregularly the latter . My claims as a feminist are limited . I claim only that the dialectic with the feminine is persistent , various , surprising , and wholehearted — not that Shakespearean drama can be ...
... never the former and only irregularly the latter . My claims as a feminist are limited . I claim only that the dialectic with the feminine is persistent , various , surprising , and wholehearted — not that Shakespearean drama can be ...
Page 7
... never is for the women charac- ters . The hero cannot lay hold of his Self when he needs it most , or he discovers it to be something other than he thought . Certainly none of the women in the tragedies — Cordelia , Desdemona , Lady ...
... never is for the women charac- ters . The hero cannot lay hold of his Self when he needs it most , or he discovers it to be something other than he thought . Certainly none of the women in the tragedies — Cordelia , Desdemona , Lady ...
Page 8
... never to the character herself . Cleopatra and Desdemona are unsurprised by their own self - revelations ; and Lady Macbeth is mad . She has no part in the struggle to articulate her shadow and to reconcile it with her conscious Self ...
... never to the character herself . Cleopatra and Desdemona are unsurprised by their own self - revelations ; and Lady Macbeth is mad . She has no part in the struggle to articulate her shadow and to reconcile it with her conscious Self ...
Page 9
... never changes in response to her sense of being at fault . In her final moments she appears to have forgotten the issue entirely . She feels no strain on her relationship with Hamlet , and her atten- tions to him in the last scene are ...
... never changes in response to her sense of being at fault . In her final moments she appears to have forgotten the issue entirely . She feels no strain on her relationship with Hamlet , and her atten- tions to him in the last scene are ...
Page 12
... never achieved . " 16 Neely's article emphasizes the play's sym- pathy with the feminine , its criticism of the " isolated , rigid , hostile , foolish " masculine world . She calls attention , for instance , to the contrast between the ...
... never achieved . " 16 Neely's article emphasizes the play's sym- pathy with the feminine , its criticism of the " isolated , rigid , hostile , foolish " masculine world . She calls attention , for instance , to the contrast between the ...
Contents
1 | |
TWO Antony and Cleopatra | 45 |
THREE Hamlet | 71 |
FOUR Macbeth and Coriolanus | 91 |
FIVE The Comic Heroine and the Avoidance | 109 |
Toward Tragedy | 135 |
The Tempest | 169 |
Other editions - View all
Comic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare Linda Bamber No preview available - 1982 |
Common terms and phrases
aggression Antony and Cleopatra Antony's battle betrayed Caesar Caliban challenge choice comic heroine conflict consciousness contrast Cordelia Coriolanus Coriolanus's course criticism Danby daughter death defined Desdemona desire dialectic drama Egypt emotion Enobarbus father feelings female feminine feminist Fiedler final Fitz genre Gertrude Gertrude's Hamlet Henry Hermione hero's history hero history plays honor Hotspur husband identity imagine instance Kate kill King Lear Lady Macbeth Lady Macduff Laertes Lear's Leontes Leslie Fiedler Macbeth and Coriolanus male manliness masculine masculine-historical Miranda misogyny mother Nature never Octavia Ophelia Orsino Othello Perdita Petruchio political Portia projection Prospero refuses relationship represents resolution Richard Richard II role romances Rome says scene seems sense sexual Shakespeare Shakespearean comedy Shakespearean tragedy shrew simply speech struggle tells Tempest thee things thou tion tragic hero Twelfth Night Viola Virgilia Volumnia whereas wife Winter's Tale woman