After reading a lovely little blog post about the feminist threads of some of Shakespeare‘s narrative poems, it might just be time to sit down and read them. Apparently, Shakespeare was groundbreaking and advanced for his time in the way he talked about women‘s agency and lives. #shakespeare #sonnets #narrativepoems #venusandadonis #therapeoflucree
https://hammaclet.tumblr.com/post/175644496729/its-been-a-while-since-i-last-rea...
GingerAntics @merelybookish @CoffeeNBooks @cocomass @TheBookHippie @CSeydel @wanderinglynn @Lcsmcat @Rachbb3 @InLibrisVeritas @batsy @Bookishgal71 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BookishBelle @JennAndrew @Gezemice @BiblioLitten @KatieanneF @readinginthedark @Jess_Read_This apparently us wondering if Shakespeare intended to be a bit of a feminist in some of his plays or if it‘s us reading our own time into them might have actually been intentional on Shakes‘s part. 6y
GingerAntics Go figure. 6y
KatieanneF I absolutely think Shakespeare was a feminist! I think if you look at his comedies, especially, you see strong, forward thinking characters. He was ahead of his time and I think his more dense works generally get more credit than his lighter stuff, but it is equally valuable and insightful 👍🏻🌟 6y
See All 11 Comments
GingerAntics @KatieanneF oh I totally agree. He probably wouldn‘t recognise the word “feminist,” but I imagine the concept was something he was all about. He seems to have enjoyed writing strong female characters. 6y
KatieanneF @GingerAntics I think so too! There is also a lot of research supporting the idea that more women “snuck” onstage than is widely recognized. It seems that in these cases, he turned a blind eye, or perhaps even encouraged undercover females to be onstage. I just played Viola in a stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love and read a lot on that topic during the process. So interesting!! 6y
GingerAntics @KatieanneF I‘ve read a little bit about that. It would be so cool to be able to be a fly on the wall at the Globe theatre in those days. He did like to push the envelope with the authorities, so that would be one more way to do it, with a very difficult process of proving it was really a woman. It‘s not like you could just go lift up someone‘s skirt in public. lol 6y
Jess_Read_This I love your edition of this book. I would love a further exploration into his feminist support; even though like you said, he wouldn‘t have recognized that word. I wonder what prompted him to be divergent from the majority of the males in that time! 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This I‘m right there with you. Of course he never could have known that he needed to write down his thoughts/ideas about it at the time. Modern psychologists say that in The Rape of Lucrece his depiction of what she goes through after the rape is SO accurate, that for someone to recognise that in that time period when women were legally blamed is just amazing. 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This thanks, I actually stumbled upon it at Half Price Books. It was such a lovely edition I couldn‘t pass it up. I think I paid less than $5 for it. Now the intro essay and the essay at the end have tons of notes and highlights in them from when I used it for a paper for one of my Shakespeare classes when I was getting my masters. My prof loved that I was taking a Shakespeare class as stress relief. lol 6y
Jess_Read_This @GingerAntics I haven‘t read The Rape of Lucrece. I‘m going to now. Wow. If he was so accurate in the aftermath, I wonder about his experiences that allowed him to be supportive of women. There‘s too much unknowns for me! I need answers.. lol. The more I‘m learning about the man, the more amazed I find myself. 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This EXACTLY!!! I‘m right there with you!!! I‘ve literally had that thought. Did something happen to him? His mother? Sister? Wife? Daughter? How did he come up with this stuff?! I haven‘t read it yet either. We‘re looking at possibly waiting until August for R2, so I‘m thinking that‘s the perfect time to read the sonnets and narrative poems. 6y
16 likes11 comments