Shakespeare's domestic economies : gender and property in early modern England / Natasha Korda.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Korda, Natasha.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Views on sex role.

Shakespeare, William.

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

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Views on property.

House furnishings in literature.

Housekeeping in literature.

Property in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Women in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (287 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Shakespeare's Domestic Economies explores representations of female subjectivity in Shakespearean drama from a refreshingly new perspective, situating The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, and Measure for Measure in relation to early modern England's nascent consumer culture and competing conceptions of property. Drawing evidence from legal documents, economic treatises, domestic manuals, marriage sermons, household inventories, and wills to explore the realities and dramatic representations of women's domestic roles, Natasha Korda departs from traditional accounts of the commodification of women, which maintain that throughout history women have been "trafficked" as passive objects of exchange between men. In the early modern period, Korda demonstrates, as newly available market goods began to infiltrate households at every level of society, women emerged as never before as the "keepers" of household properties. With the rise of consumer culture, she contends, the housewife's managerial function assumed a new form, becoming increasingly centered around caring for the objects of everyday life-objects she was charged with keeping as if they were her own, in spite of the legal strictures governing women's property rights. Korda deftly shows how their positions in a complex and changing social formation allowed women to exert considerable control within the household domain, and in some areas to thwart the rule of fathers and husbands.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Note on Spelling and Editions

Introduction

Chapter 1. Housekeeping and Household Stuff

Chapter 2. Household Kates: Domesticating Commodities in The Taming of the Shrew

Chapter 3. Judicious Oeillades: Supervising Marital Property in The Merry Wives of Windsor

Chapter 4. The Tragedy of the Handkerchief: Female Paraphernalia and the Properties of Jealousy in Othello

Chapter 5. Isabellas Rule: Singlewomen and the Properties of Poverty in Measure for Measure

Conclusion: Household Property/Stage Property

Notes

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-262) and index.

ISBN:

9780585436272

9781283890946

1283890941

9780812202519

0812202511

9780585436274

0585436274

OCLC:

51453260