Shakespeare and Early Modern Misogyny

This exploration of misogyny in Shakespeare and early modern drama reads gender, sexuality, queerness, and race through the lens of feminist philosophy. It puts Kate Manne’s ground-breaking analysis of misogyny in conversation with Shakespeare to highlight cultural and social norms in the performance of his dramatic works.The cultural expectations surrounding women in Shakespeare’s England are analysed through critical feminist readings of Hamlet, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Rape of Lucrece. These readings offer audiences tools to recognize how the conclusions that restore order in many of Shakespeare’s plays also contribute to misogyny and violence against women. Contributors consider queens, race, misogynoir, violence against Indigenous women and girls, maternal absence and public punishment. Shakespeare and Early Modern Misogyny asks a number of vital questions. How does the performance of misogyny onstage encourage its practice among audience members? How does contemporary misogyny relate to an era when the sexes were not considered equal? How does misogyny reinforce the male/female binary in a space where sex, gender and race were all performed? In providing answers and critical engagement with these questions, contributors encourage us to re-examine the production of misogyny and its mediation through multiple identities in Shakespeare.