Shakespeare, sex and the print revolution
This book investigates how the sexual element in Shakespeare's works is complicated and compromised by the impact of print. Whether the issue is one of censorship and evasion or sexual redefinition, the fact that Shakespeare wrote in the first century of popular print is crucial. Out of the newly-accessible classical canon he creates a reconstituted idea of the sexual temptress; and out of Counter-Reformation propaganda he fashions his own complex thinking about the prostitute. Shakespeare's theatrical scripts, meeting-ground for the spoken and written word, contribute powerfully to those socio-sexual debates which had been re-energized by print
Criticism, interpretation, etc
ix, 274 pages ; 23 cm
9780485114959, 9780485121216, 048511495X, 0485121212
32923687
pt. I. Shakespearean Images and the Paradox of Print. 1. The Shakespearean Reputation. 2. Performance versus Text. 3. Censorship and Evasion. 4. The First Print Era: Reader-Spectator as Voyeur
pt. II. Shakespeare and the Classics. 5. Roman Rapes. 6. Sexual Temptresses. 7. Trojan Whores. 8. Cupid-Adonis: 'Prettie Boyes' and 'Unlawfull Joyes'. 9. Pox and Gold: Timon's New World Heritage
pt. III. The Sexual Reformation. 10. The Education of Women: Textual Authority or Sexual Licence. 11. Othello, Cuckoldry and the Doctrine of Generality. 12. Class and Courtship Ritual in Much Ado. 13. Honest Whores, or the State as Brothel