Manhood and Masculine Identity in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth

Manhood and Masculine Identity in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth
Author: Maria L. Howell
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2008-10-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0761841989

Maria Howell''s, Manhood and Masculine Identity in William Shakespeare''s The Tragedy of Macbeth, is an important and compelling scholarly work which seeks to examine the sixteenth century''s greatest concern, echoed by Hamlet himself, "What is a man?" In an attempt to analyze the concept of manhood in Macbeth, Howell explores the contradictions and ambiguities that underlie heroic notions of masculinity dramatized throughout the play. From Lady Macbeth''s capacity to control and destroy Macbeth''s masculine identity, to Macbeth himself, who corrupts his military prowess to become a ruthless and murderous tyrant, Howell demonstrates that heroic notions of masculinity not only reinforce masculine power and authority, paradoxically, these ideals are also the source of man''s disempowerment and destruction. Howell argues that in an attempt to attain a higher principle, the means (violence and destruction) and the ends (justice and peace) become fused and indistinguishable, so that those values that inform man''s actions for good no longer provide moral clarity. Howell''s poignant and timely analysis of manhood and masculine identity in Shakespeare''s Macbeth will no doubt resonate with readers today.

Post-World War II Masculinities in British and American Literature and Culture

Post-World War II Masculinities in British and American Literature and Culture
Author: Stefan Horlacher
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317077105

Analyzing literary texts, plays, films and photographs within a transatlantic framework, this volume explores the inseparable and mutually influential relationship between different forms of national identity in Great Britain and the United States and the construction of masculinity in each country. The contributors take up issues related to how certain kinds of nationally specific masculine identifications are produced, how these change over time, and how literature and other forms of cultural representation eventually question and deconstruct their own myths of masculinity. Focusing on the period from the end of World War II to the 1980s, the essays each take up a topic with particular cultural and historical resonance, whether it is hypermasculinity in early cold war films; the articulation of male anxieties in plays by Arthur Miller, David Mamet and Sam Shepard; the evolution of photographic depictions of masculinity from the 1960s to the 1980s; or the representations of masculinity in the fiction of American and British writers such as Patricia Highsmith, Richard Yates, John Braine, Martin Amis, Evan S. Connell, James Dickey, John Berger, Philip Roth, Frank Chin, and Maxine Hong Kingston. The editors and contributors make a case for the importance of understanding the larger context for the emergence of more pluralistic, culturally differentiated and ultimately transnational masculinities, arguing that it is possible to conceptualize and emphasize difference and commonality simultaneously.

He Says/she Says Shakespeare

He Says/she Says Shakespeare
Author: Francesco Aristide Ancona
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2008
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780761839415

Macbeth : the question of personality reversal -- Othello : the question of jealousy -- As you like it : the question of escaping conventional society -- Hamlet : the question of guilt and blame -- The taming of the shrew : the question of gender and dominance -- Much ado about nothing : the question of a (happy?) marriage

Lady Macbeth's Daughter

Lady Macbeth's Daughter
Author: Lisa Klein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2010-09-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1599906236

Raised by three strange sisters, Albia has never known the secrets of her parentage. But when Macbeth seeks out the weird sisters to foretell his fate, his life is entangled with his unknown daughter's. When Albia foresees the terrible future, she becomes determined to save Macbeth's rival-and the man she loves-from her murderous father. Klein's seamlessly drawn tale makes it seem impossible that Albia was not part of Shakespeare's original play.

Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender

Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender
Author: Shirley Nelson Garner
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 1996-02-22
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780253210272

While considering Shakespeare's earliest attempts at tragedy in Richard III and Titus Andronicus, this volume covers the major tragic period, giving special attention to Othello.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth
Author: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2010
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 160413884X

A collection of literary criticism focusing on Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

A Kind of Wild Justice

A Kind of Wild Justice
Author: Linda Anderson
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1987
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780874133196

This study demonstrates not only that the devices of revenge are structurally useful in comedy, but also that there is a consistent conception of revenge as an ethical social instrument in the comedies of Shakespeare.

Women and Revenge in Shakespeare

Women and Revenge in Shakespeare
Author: Marguerite A. Tassi
Publisher: Susquehanna University Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2011
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1575911310

Can there be a virtue in vengeance? Can revenge do ethical work? Can revenge be the obligation of women? This wide-ranging literary study looks at Shakespeare's women and finds bold answers to questions such as these. A surprising number of Shakespeare's female characters respond to moral outrages by expressing a strong desire for vengeance. This book's analysis of these characters and their circumstances offers incisive critical perceptions of feminine anger, ethics, and agency and challenges our assumptions about the role of gender in revenge. In this provocative book, Marguerite A. Tassi counters longstanding critical opinions on revenge: that it is the sole province of men in Western literature and culture, that it is a barbaric, morally depraved, irrational instinct, and that it is antithetical to justice. Countless examples have been mined from Shakespeare's dramas to reveal women's profound concerns with revenge and justice, honor and shame, crime and punishment. In placing the critical focus on avenging women, this book significantly redresses a gender imbalance in scholarly treatments of revenge, particularly in early modern literature.