ENGLISH

Shakespeare, Tragedy and Menopause : The Anxious Womb

By Victoria L. McMahon

Book information

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Year
2023
ISBN
9783031272035, 9783031272042
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-27204-2
ISSN
2731-3212
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
7 MB (7641667 bytes)
Series
Palgrave Shakespeare Studies
Edition
1
Pages
xvii; 303\312
Topic
Literature
Orientation
yes
Scanned
no
Time added
2023-11-16 23:29:00
Cultural and Media Studies; Early Modern/RenaissangeneralLiterature

Description

Shakespeare was not only aware of the socio-cultural fears and anxieties generated by the older woman’s body but with the characterization of his tragic ageing females, Shakespeare becomes the first literary giant to explore the physiological and psychosocial condition that we have come to know as ‘menopause’. Although ‘menopause’ was not defined as a medical, physiological or sociocultural event for the early moderns, this book argues that such a medical and cultural transition can, in fact, be identified by sub-textual clues distinguished by various embodied anxieties. It explores several ageing women of the Shakespearean tragedies as they transition through this liminal menopausal period. Theoretically underscored by humoral theory, the analysis is metonymically centered upon the womb as the seat of menopausal anxiety. These menopausal undercurrents, not only permeate the dramatic action of each play, but also emanate outward to reflect the medical, physiological, cultural, social, and religious concerns generated by the ageing woman of the early modern period at large.

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