Synopses & Reviews
A surprisingly large number of women writers, directors, and performers have created works that talk back to Shakespeare, or to most earlier and more traditional interpretations of his plays, in the late 20th century. For example, Jane Smileys
A Thousand Acres, which rewrites
King Lear, and Marina Warners
Indigo, which rewrites
The Tempest, protest biases against women and racist and imperialist attitudes that Shakespeares plays have come to symbolize. In this collection, feminist critics--and Jane Smiley herself--explore a range of such rewritings, as well as recent Shakespeare performances directed by women.
Review
“Full of fresh insights and ranging widely across the field of contemporary culture, Transforming Shakespeare is an exciting book. It strikingly demonstrates the many provocative ways in which Shakespeare can be ‘our contemporary.'” —Jean E. Howard, Columbia University
“Novy gathers a varied and all-star cast to explore women's 're-visions' of Shakespeare...well-documented and well-written essays offers new visions of Shakespeare for the diverse, postmodern world...” —Choice
“These well-written and accessible essays show how contemporary women subvert or expand upon [Shakespeare's] original texts, covering subjects as diverse as ecofeminism, colonialism, incest and production styles.” —Library Journal
Review
“Full of fresh insights and ranging widely across the field of contemporary culture, Transforming Shakespeare is an exciting book. It strikingly demonstrates the many provocative ways in which Shakespeare can be ‘our contemporary.'” —Jean E. Howard, Columbia University
“Novy gathers a varied and all-star cast to explore women's 're-visions' of Shakespeare...well-documented and well-written essays offers new visions of Shakespeare for the diverse, postmodern world...” —Choice
“These well-written and accessible essays show how contemporary women subvert or expand upon [Shakespeare's] original texts, covering subjects as diverse as ecofeminism, colonialism, incest and production styles.” —Library Journal
Synopsis
This innovative book outlines the great complexity, variety and difference of male identities in Islamic societies. From the Taliban orphanages of Afghanistan to the cafes of Morocco, from the experience of couples at infertility clinics in Egypt to that of Iraqi conscripts, it shows how the masculine gender is constructed and negotiated in the Islamic Ummah. It goes far beyond the traditional notion that Islamic masculinities are inseparable from the control of women, and shows how the relationship between spirituality and masculinity is experienced quite differently from the prevailing Western norms.
Synopsis
A surprisingly large number of women writers, directors, and performers have created works that talk back to Shakespeare, or to most earlier and more traditional interpretations of his plays, in the late 20th century. For example, Jane Smileys
A Thousand Acres, which rewrites
King Lear, and Marina Warners
Indigo, which rewrites
The Tempest, protest biases against women and racist and imperialist attitudes that Shakespeares plays have come to symbolize. In this collection, feminist critics--and Jane Smiley herself--explore a range of such rewritings, as well as recent Shakespeare performances directed by women.
About the Author
Marianne Novy is Professor of English and former Director of Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of
Love’s Argument: Gender Relations in Shakespeare and the editor of
Women’s Re-Visions of Shakespeare.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Marianne Novy * Rita Doves Two Shakespeare Poems--Peter Erickson * Recent Australian
Shrews : The ‘Larrikin Element--Penny Gay * Katie Mitchells
Henry VI --Barbara Hodgdon * Subverting the Male Gaze: Christine Edzards Film of
As You Like It -- Patricia Lennox * Ann-Marie MacDonalds
Good Night Desdemona and Paula Vogels
Desdemona --Marianne Novy * Jazz Cleopatras: Shakespearean Appropriations by Two Hollywood Divas: Josephine Baker and Tamora Dobson--Francesca Royster * The Polluted Quarry: Nature and Body in
A Thousand Acres --Barbara Mathieson *
King Lear and
A Thousand Acres : Gender, Genre, and the Revisionary Impulse--Iska Alter * Shakespeare in Iceland--Jane Smiley * ‘Out of Shakespeare?: Cordelia in
Cats Eye --Suzanne Raitt * Tempest Plainsong: Silencing Calibans Curse--Diana Brydon * Sycorax Speaks: Marina Warners
Indigo and
The Tempest --Caroline Cakebread * Claribel at Palace Dot Tunis--Linda Bamber