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[받은편지보관함] 내용보기 목록 | 윗글아랫글 선택된 편지를 --편지함으로 옮기기--받은편지보관함 휴지통 새편지로 변경 바운더리별보기 메일헤더보기 제목 제목없음 보낸날짜 2004년 09월 27일 월요일, 낮 3시 07분 54초 +0900 (KST) 보낸이 "사랑" 수신거부에 추가 주소록에 추가 받는이 In 1980 a book called The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare was published. This collection of 18 essays—all about women, and all but two written by women—marked a major new direction in the field of Shakespeare criticism. Feminist readings of the plays not only directed the reader’s attention toward Shakespeare’s female characters but also shifted the entire focus of literary analysis from the “universal” to the “individual.” ORIGINS OF FEMINIST CRITICISM. Until the 1970s the famous Shakespeare critics were almost exclusively male, and they wrote almost exclusively about male characters, particularly about tragic heroes such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. They also made generalizations about “mankind,” ignoring the fact that this term often tends to exclude the experiences of women. For example, Theodore Spencer’s 1942 book Shakespeare and the Nature of Man talks extensively about what the author calls “human experience as a whole” yet says almost nothing about women. Spencer dismisses the character of Cressida in Troilus and Cressida as “worthless,” and his chapter on Antony and Cleopatra completely ignores Cleopatra, saying merely that her character is “beyond our present scope.” In 1975 the British critic Juliet Dusinberre published Shakespeare and the Nature of Woman, a volume whose striking title is clearly a response to Spencer’s. The revolutionary central argument of her book is that Shakespeare was a feminist. Dusinberre claims that, as Puritans* gained influence in British society, women were increasingly viewed as household partners rather than simply as the property of their husbands. She then suggests that the drama of the period, including Shakespeare’s work, reflected this new status. She also emphasizes the importance of discussing women as women rather than assuming that such categories as “man” and “human” cover the experience of women as well. Although Dusinberre’s book was influential, it was widely criticized for taking too positive a view of Shakespeare’s work, paying attention only to the evidence that supported her theory while ignoring passages that displayed more negative attitudes toward women. * Puritan: English Protestant who advocated strict moral discipline and a simplification of the ceremonies and beliefs of the Anglican Church The new movement in Shakespearean criticism truly began in 1976, when the Modern Language Association of America held a Special Session on Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare.
Approximate Word count = 1502
Approximate Pages = 6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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