The first full-length study of Shakespeare's influence on Victorian women writers, actresses and readers.

This bold and compelling revisionist history tells the remarkable story of the forgotten lives and labours of Shakespeare's women editors.

Sophie Duncan illuminates iconoclastic performances of Shakespeare's heroines in late Victorian theatre, through the celebrity, commentary, and careers of the actresses who played them. Duncan draws on a wealth of archival material to explore the vital ways in which fin-de-siecle Shakespeare and Victorian theatre culture conditioned each other.

Ziegler, Dolan, and Roberts' "attention is directed specifically to the representations of Shakespeare's women in the Victorian era, rather than on the Elizabethan stage ... [They have] culled from the [Folger] Library's vast holdings a remarkably varied and illuminating array of books, manuscripts, and illustrations which provide a new understanding of how Shakespeare's heroines came to embody, reflect, and refract the values and assumptions of nineteenth-century English society."--Foreword, p.7.

Examines the life of the androgynous nineteenth-century American actress and her work on the Anglo-American stage

Women Making Shakespeare presents a series of 20-25 short essays that draw on a variety of resources, including interviews with directors, actors, and other performance practitioners, to explore the place (or constitutive absence) of women in the Shakespearean text and in the history of Shakespearean reception - the many ways women, working individually or in communities, have shaped and transformed the reception, performance, and teaching of Shakespeare from the 17th century to the present. The book highlights the essential role Shakespeare's texts have played in the historical development of feminism. Rather than a traditional collection of essays, Women Making Shakespeare brings together materials from diverse resources and uses diverse research methods to create something new and transformative. Among the many women's interactions with Shakespeare to be considered are acting (whether on the professional stage, in film, on lecture tours, or in staged readings), editing, teaching, academic writing, and recycling through adaptations and appropriations (film, novels, poems, plays, visual arts).

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, language: English, abstract: Throughout the ages one particular cultural topic has occupied the minds of scholars, authors and politicians, the question of a woman’s position in society. Up until the 20th century, when feminist activists finally reached achievements with their actions, the most important being the female right to vote, which was granted to women in Great Britain in 1918 only, the woman’s inferior position to the man was seen as a given. Many works, fictional as well as academic and advisory were written throughout the ages that deal with the relations between men and women, not only by female authors, but also by male. Rooting in the basic dogmata of patriarchal society, the oppression of the “weaker” sex and the regard of women as the “weaker vessel” was justified with the Bible, anatomical facts and biological beliefs. Usually a woman was expected to be subject to her husband, father or other male superior, her job was to stay at home and take care of children and household. Great Britain was no exception to this rule. Nonetheless it is a curious fact that the great country has existed many years under a female monarch, and this not only once. Two of the world’s most popular monarchs, who both reigned over 40 years, were the British queens Elizabeth I and Victoria. The first ruled over the country in the sixteenth, the second in the nineteenth century, but both were cause for many debates and gossip in English society of their respecting times. Each of the two women was an extraordinary woman and an important monarch, who achieved a lot for her country, and yet in their being women, both royals were typical for the women of their time. Despite their many similarities, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria could not have been more different, since they lived and ruled in different times and regarded their roles as women and rulers differently. This paper will deal with exactly these problems. I will look at the problem of women’s role in Elizabethan and in Victorian society, regarding their position according to their social, financial and marital status. Furthermore the paper will inspect the idea of the ideal woman and her position next to the man. At last I will assay the phenomena of the female ruler and analyse the figures of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria and explore their situation as women on the throne.

Frontispiece accompanied by guard sheet with descriptive letterpress. Mainly in support of the theory that Mary Fitton was the "dark lady" of the Sonnets.

Discover the fascinating stories of the bold and brave women in Shakespeare's plays.Stories of twelve of Shakespeare's courageous, strong-willed and determined characters are brought to life with Becca Stadtlander's rich and evocative illustrations. Celebrate these incredible women with this beautiful gift book, the perfect way to get children fascinated by Shakespeare and inspired by his work.Featuring: Titania, Cleopatra, Rosalind, Margaret of Anjou, Cordelia, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice, Juliet, Portia, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, Miranda, Viola.