Shakespeare and the performance of girlhood / Deanne Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Deanne, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Palgrave Shakespeare studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters--Girls.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Girls in literature.

Girls.

Physical Description:

xi, 277 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood is the first scholarly study devoted entirely to Shakespeare's girl characters. Revealing the dramatic and cultural centrality of the young girl in early modern English culture, and highlighting the "girl" as a distinctive category in Shakespeare, this book locates Shakespeare's girl characters and representations of girlhood at a pivotal moment in the history of girlhood as an identity and social condition. Illuminating Shakespeare's girl characters in their relationship to earlier historical discourses and representations, and charting the development of Shakespeare's construction of the girl as a dramatic and literary figure throughout his career, Deanne Williams demonstrates that Shakespeare's girl characters are consistently and self-consciously invested in performance, from playing dramatic and musical parts, to performing public and domestic roles. Calling attention to the influence of Shakespeare and his girl characters on girl performers, patrons, and playwrights, Williams makes an original contribution to the history and culture of the early modern girl. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Girls included!

Part 1. Shakespeare's girls. Peevish and perverse

Isabelle de France, child bride

Enter Ofelia playing on a lute

Lost girls

part 2. Stages of girlhood. A dancing princess

The lady and Comus

Part 3. Writing girls. My lady Rachells booke

Perpetual girlhood in The concealed fancies

Conclusion: Girlhood after Shakespeare's heroines.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (248-266) and index.

ISBN:

1137024755

9781137024756

OCLC:

865063260