The Art of Loving: Female Subjectivity and Male Discursive Traditions in Shakespeare's TragediesUniversity of Delaware Press, 1992 - 153 стор. To be a subject is to be able to speak, to give meaning. The Art of Loving interrogates the phenomenon of "theatrical subjectivity"--Female protagonists as both subjects and objects on the early modern English stage and within the illusion of Shakespeare's tragedies. The disparity between females as acting, speaking subjects onstage and male protagonists' objectifications of them constitutes the dominating gendered irony of the dramatic texts. In Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra, Professor Gajowski argues, women are not portrayed as they are valued by men. Endowed with a self-estimation that is independent of masculine estimations of them, Juliet, Desdemona, and Cleopatra subvert Petrarchan, Ovidian, and Orientalist discursive traditions by which males construct females as gendered, colonized others. The independence of their self-evaluation from conflicting male desire and repugnance for them accounts for their "infinite variety." The uniqueness of Shakespeare's representation of heterosexual relations is his creation of female protagonists who are relational, yet independent, human beings. The empowered female protagonists of Shakespeare's comedies are rightly celebrated by "compensatory" feminist critics; the disempowered--even victimized--female protagonists of his tragedies are rightly noted by "justificatory" feminist critics. To view the marriages of the comic females as nothing more than submissions to patriarchy, Professor Gajowski contends, is to ignore the crucial significance in Shakespeare's texts of affiliative capacities of both sexes of the human animal. Accordingly, to view the deaths of the tragic females as victimizations by patriarchy--and no more than that--is to ignore the commentary that Shakespeare's texts make upon masculine impulses of possession, politics, and power. While feminist critics recognize the significance of dramatic representations of sexuality and affective relations, recent materialist/historicist studies consider representations of sexuality and affective relations significant only insofar as they are relevant to the manipulations of Elizabethan and Jacobean political power and mechanisms of economic exchange. The privileging of politics and power on the part of these critics constitutes a perpetuation and reinforcement of patriarchal values. It has the effect of putting woman in her customary place: marginalized, erased, subservient to the newly dominant male discursive traditions. It is antithetical, moreover, to a genuinely feminist discourse because it deprivileges relationships, denying the power that they play in cultures and in texts. It is the difference between proclaiming, Creon-like, that families are subservient to the state and comprehending the far more complex psychosocial truth that the state is constituted of families. To assume that structures of political and economic power have greater value than sexual and affective experience is to ignore the interpenetrating nature of public and private experience that Shakespeare's texts depict. |
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Сторінка
... tion from conflicting male desire and repugnance for them accounts for their " infinite variety . " The uniqueness of Shakespeare's representation of hetero- sexual relations is his creation of female protagonists who are relational ...
... tion from conflicting male desire and repugnance for them accounts for their " infinite variety . " The uniqueness of Shakespeare's representation of hetero- sexual relations is his creation of female protagonists who are relational ...
Сторінка 17
... tion , but in different ways and at different rates ( [ 1976 ] 1986 , 128-29 ) . Because the emphasis in the love tragedies is on the psychological as well as the social , the obstacles to the love relationship are more complicated than ...
... tion , but in different ways and at different rates ( [ 1976 ] 1986 , 128-29 ) . Because the emphasis in the love tragedies is on the psychological as well as the social , the obstacles to the love relationship are more complicated than ...
Сторінка 18
... tion as man's inferior , the cause of his fall , and a lascivious creature of the flesh , is viewed as worthy of man's profound love . Desire on the part of the male rather than consummation becomes a literary end in itself ( 1987 , 34 ...
... tion as man's inferior , the cause of his fall , and a lascivious creature of the flesh , is viewed as worthy of man's profound love . Desire on the part of the male rather than consummation becomes a literary end in itself ( 1987 , 34 ...
Сторінка 20
... tion , is that of honor to love . Shakespeare's comedies — particularly Two Gentlemen of Verona , Love's Labor's Lost , The Merchant of Venice , and Much Ado About Nothing — reveal an increasing tension , when considered chronologically ...
... tion , is that of honor to love . Shakespeare's comedies — particularly Two Gentlemen of Verona , Love's Labor's Lost , The Merchant of Venice , and Much Ado About Nothing — reveal an increasing tension , when considered chronologically ...
Сторінка 21
... tion for the male imagination . " The blazon tradition is " the product of men talking to men about women " ( 1985 , 96 ) . Neither the cruel , coy fair of the sonnet cycles nor the silent , passive maiden of medieval romance and Roman ...
... tion for the male imagination . " The blazon tradition is " the product of men talking to men about women " ( 1985 , 96 ) . Neither the cruel , coy fair of the sonnet cycles nor the silent , passive maiden of medieval romance and Roman ...
Зміст
15 | |
26 | |
Othello Female Subjectivity and the Ovidian Discursive Tradition | 51 |
Antony and Cleopatra Female Subjectivity and Orientalism | 86 |
Human Affiliation and the Wedge of Gender | 120 |
Notes | 127 |
Works Cited | 138 |
Index | 145 |
Інші видання - Показати все
The Art of Loving: Female Subjectivity and Male Discursive Traditions in ... Evelyn Gajowski Перегляд фрагмента - 1992 |
Загальні терміни та фрази
A. C. Bradley Antony and Cleopatra Antony's awareness beauty betrayal Bianca Brabantio's Caesar Capulet Cassio character characterization chastity chivalric comic concern confidence conflict Cordelia courtly cultural death depends Desdemona desire Discursive Tradition dominant dramatic action E. M. Forster echoes Egypt Emilia emotional commitment emphasizes Enobarbus expression faith feeling female protagonists Female Subjectivity feminist feud final gender generosity give Goldman hath honor human husband Iago Iago's ideals imaginative innocence insists jealousy loss love tragedies Love's lovers male protagonists masculine Merchant of Venice Mercutio's military misogyny mutual nature Neely Octavius Octavius's Ornstein Othello Ovidian discursive patriarchal marriage Petrarchan play poetic political possession psychological relationship Repr response reveals Robert Ornstein role romantic love Rome Romeo and Juliet Rosaline scene sexual Shake Shakespeare Shakespeare's female Shakespeare's tragedies social sonnet tagonists theatrical thee Thomas Neely thou tion tragic action Tybalt understanding University Press whore wife woman women York
Популярні уривки
Сторінка 35 - But, soft ! what light through yonder window breaks ? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun ! — Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou her maid art far more fair than she...
Сторінка 91 - The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water ; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes.
Сторінка 55 - My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs ; She swore, — In faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange ; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful...
Сторінка 47 - If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand : My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
Сторінка 49 - O my love! my wife! Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath. Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Сторінка 73 - And to his honours, and his valiant parts, Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, A moth of peace, and he go to the war, The...
Сторінка 67 - Farewell the tranquil mind ! farewell content ! Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell ! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner ; and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ! And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit, Farewell ! Othello's occupation's gone ! lago.
Сторінка 115 - My desolation does begin to make A better life : Tis paltry to be Caesar; Not being fortune, he's but fortune's knave, A minister of her will ; And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds ; Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Caesar's.
Сторінка 36 - Tis but thy name that is my enemy ; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague ? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man.
Сторінка 29 - Here's much to do with hate, but more with love : — Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate ! O any thing, of nothing first create ! O heavy lightness ! serious vanity ! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms ! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health ! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is ! — This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
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