Shakespeare's visionary women / Laura Jayne Wright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Laura Jayne, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in Shakespeare performance, 2516-0117.

Cambridge elements. Elements in Shakespeare performance, 2516-0117

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters.

Women in literature.

Visions in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (74 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Shakespeare's visionary women, usually confined to the periphery, claim centre stage to voice their sleeping and waking dreams. These women recount their visions through acts of rhetoric, designed to persuade and, crucially, to directly intervene in political action. The visions discussed in this Element are therefore not simply moments of inspiration but of political intercession. The vision performed or recounted on stage offers a proleptic moment of female speech that forces audiences to confront questions of narrative truth and women's testimony. This Element interrogates the scepticism that Shakespeare's visionary women face and considers the ways in which they perform the truth of their experiences to a hostile onstage audience. It concludes that prophecy gives women a brief moment of access to political conversations in which they are not welcome as they wrest narrative control from male speakers and speak their truth aloud.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Shakespeare's Visionary Women

Contents

Author's Note

1 Introduction: Given to Lie

1.1 Believe Women: A Methodology

1.2 Conclusion: Seek Further

2 The Art of Dissuasion

2.1 Cassandra: Raptured Speech

2.2 Calphurnia: Second-hand Dreams

2.3 Conclusion

3 Ambitious Visions and/as Sinful Thought

3.1 Eleanor of Gloucester: Presumptuous Sight

3.2 Lady Macbeth: Sick Visions

3.3 Conclusion

4 Believe Not Every Spirit

4.1 Joan Puc/zel: Hearing Devils

4.2 Katherine of Aragon: Seeing Angels

4.3 Conclusion

5 Sooth-Dreams

5.1 Queen Margaret: Predictive Memory

5.2 Queen Constance: Proleptic Grief

5.3 Conclusion

6 Conclusion: Looking Back

References

Acknowledgements.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Dec 2023).

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781009063098

100906309X

9781009063296

1009063294

9781009057394

1009057391

OCLC:

1414210728