Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In the first full-length study of Shakespeare's Roman plays, Copp lia Kahn brings to these texts a startling, critical perspective which interrogates the gender ideologies lurking behind 'Roman virtue'.
Plays featured include:
* Titus Andronicus
* Julius Caesar
* Antony and Cleopatra
* Coriolanus
* Cymbeline
Setting the Roman works in the dual context of the popular theatre and Renaissance humanism, the author identifies new sources which she analyzes from a historicised feminist perspective.
Roman Shakespeare is written in an accessible style and will appeal to scholars and students of Shakespeare and those interested in feminist theory, as well as classicists.
Synopsis
Are the values inherent in Shakespeare's Roman works -- virtue, principle, stoicism, self-discipline -- embodied solely in Shakespeare's male characters? Roman Shakespeare argues that these virtues are not gender neutral; rather, they comprise a system of sexual difference engendering a particularly male subject: the Roman hero.
Coppelia Kahn, an established feminist, literary, and Shakespearian critic, argues that Shakespeare's Roman heroes strive to prove their manhood through the exhibition of the "wound" -- a mark of male virtue as well as feminine vulnerability. Kahn interprets the construction of masculinity in Lucrece, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline, while also examining the symbol of women as representative of emotion and dependency. Roman Shakespeare will be of vital interest to Shakespearean, feminist and classical scholars.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-184) and index.