Shakespearean Tragedy & Gender

"... an important volume for scholar and student alike, and a tribute to the enduring contributions of its authors." --Renaissance Quarterly

"These thought-provoking essays run the gamut of feminist criticism on tragedy." --Shakespeare Quarterly

"Highly recommended... " --Choice

These essays mount a powerful critique of the tragic hero as representative of the errors and sufferings of humankind. They come from a variety of perspectives--including feminist new historicism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and autobiographical criticism. While considering Shakespeare's earliest attempts at tragedy in Richard III and Titus Andronicus, this volume also covers the major tragic period, giving special attention to Othello.

SHIRLEY NELSON GARNER is Professor and Chair of English at the University of Minnesota. She is a co-editor, with Claire Kahane and Madelon Sprengnether, of The (M)other Tongue: Essays in Feminist Psychoanalytic Interpretation; and a contributor to the Personal Narratives Group's Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives. MADELON SPRENGNETHER is Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of The Spectral Mother: Freud, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis and co-editor of Revising the Word and the World: Essays in Feminist Literary Criticism and The (M)other Tongue.

Introduction: The Gendered Subject of Shakespearean Tragedy, Madelon Sprengnether

1. Tragic Subjects

History into Tragedy: The Case of Richard III, Phyllis Rackin

A Woman of Letters: Lavinia in Titus Andronicus, Sara Eaton

"Documents in Madness": REading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare's Tragedies and Early Modern Culture, Carol Thomas Neely

"Born of Woman": Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth, Janet Adelman

"Magic of Bounty": Timon of Athens, Jacobean Patronage, and Maternal Power, Coppélia Kahn

2. Implicating Othello

Desdemona's Disposition, Lena Cowen Orlin

"The Moor of Venice," or the Indian on the Renaissance English Stage, Margo Hendricks

The Heroics of Marriage in Othello and The Duchess of Malfi, Mary Beth Rose

3. Shakespeare Our Contemporary?

The Fatal Cleopatra, Carol Cook

What's Love Got to Do with It? Reading the Liberal Humanist Romance in Antony and Cleopatra, Linda Charnes

Shakespeare in My Time and Place, Shirley Nelson Garner

Leaving Shakespeare, Gayle Greene

Notes on Contributors

Index