Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender [Paperback]

... 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 perspectivesincluding feminist new historicism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and autobiographical criticism. While considering Shakespeares 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 Groups Interpreting Womens 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 Shakespeares 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, Copp?lia Kahn

2. Implicating Othello
Desdemonas Disposition, Lena Cowen Orlin
The Moor of Venice, orlӞ