Rethinking Feminism in Early Modern Studies
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
RETHINKING FEMINISM IN EARLY MODERN STUDIES Rethinking Feminism in Early Modern Studies is a volume of essays by leading scholars in the field of early modern studies on the history, present state, and future possibilities of feminist criticism and theory. It responds to current anxieties that feminist criticism is in a state of decline by attending to debates and differences that have emerged in light of ongoing scholarly discussions of race, affect, sexuality, and transnationalism-work that compels us continually to reassess our definitions of ‘women’ and gender. Rethinking Feminism demonstrates how studies of early modern literature, history, and culture can contribute to a reimagination of feminist aims, methods, and objects of study at this historical juncture. While the scholars contributing to Rethinking Feminism have very different interests and methods, they are united in their conviction that early modern studies must be in dialogue with, and indeed contribute to, larger theoretical and political debates about gender, race, and sexuality, and to the relationship between these areas. To this end, the essays not only analyze literary texts and cultural practices to shed light on early modern ideology and politics, but also address metacritical questions of methodology and theory. Taken together, they show how a consciousness of the complexity of the past allows us to rethink the genealogies and historical stakes of current scholarly norms and debates. Ania Loomba is Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Melissa E. Sanchez is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Women and Gender in the Early Modern World Series Editors: Allyson Poska and Abby Zanger The study of women and gender offers some of the most vital and innovative challenges to current scholarship on the early modern period. For more than a decade now, Women and Gender in the Early Modern World has served as a forum for presenting fresh ideas and original approaches to the field. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in scope, this Ashgate series strives to reach beyond geographical limitations to explore the experiences of early modern women and the nature of gender in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. We welcome proposals for both single-author volumes and edited collections which expand and develop this continually evolving field of study. Recent titles in the series: Gender and Song in Early Modern England Leslie C. Dunn and Katherine R. Larson Autobiographical Writing by Early Modern Hispanic Women Elizabeth Teresa Howe Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France Cathy McClive Baptist Women’s Writings in Revolutionary Culture, 1640–1680 Rachel Adcock Men and Women Making Friends in Early Modern France Lewis C. Seifert and Rebecca M. Wilkin Rethinking Gaspara Stampa in the Canon of Renaissance Poetry Unn Falkeid and Aileen A. Feng Maternity and Romance Narratives in Early Modern England Karen Bamford and Naomi J. Miller Devout Laywomen in the Early Modern World Alison Weber Anna Maria van Schurman,ʻThe Star of Utrechtʼ Anne R. Larsen Rethinking Feminism in Early Modern Studies Gender, Race, and Sexuality Edited by ANIA LOOMBA AND MELISSA E. SANCHEZ University of Pennsylvania First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 selection and editorial matter, Ania Loomba and Melissa E. Sanchez; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-4724-2175-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-4724-2176-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-3156-0603-3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC To our mothers— biological and academic— with whom we have quarreled and from whom we have learned. This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Notes on Contributors xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Why “Feminism”? Why Now? 1 Ania Loomba and Melissa E. Sanchez SECTION I HISTORIES 1 Feminism and the Burdens of History 15 Ania Loomba and Melissa E. Sanchez 2 Family Quarrels: Feminist Criticism, Queer Studies, and Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century 43 Coppélia Kahn 3 Tempestuous Transitions and Double Vision: From Early to Late Modern Gendered Performances in Higher Education 59 Diana E. Henderson SECTION II METHODS 4 “First as Tragedy, then as . .”: Gender, Genre, History, and Romeo and Juliet 75 Crystal Bartolovich 5 Shakespeare’s Laundry: Feminist Futures in the Archive 93 Natasha Korda 6 Constructions of Race and Gender in the Two Texts of Othello 113 Leah S. Marcus SECTION III BODIES 7 “Travelling Bodyes”: Native Women of the Northeast and Northwest Passage Ventures and English Discourses of Empire 135 Bernadette Andrea 8 Moral Constitution: Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam and the Color of Blood 149 Kimberly Anne Coles viii Contents 9 Gertrude/Ophelia: Feminist Intermediality, Ekphrasis, and Tenderness in Hamlet 165 Sujata Iyengar SECTION IV AGENCY 10 Samson’s Gospel of Sex: Failed Universals in Milton and Freud 187 Richard Halpern 11 Chasing Chastity: The Case of Desdemona 195 Will Stockton 12 Whose Body? 213 Kathryn Schwarz Afterword: Early Modern (Feminist) Methods 229 Valerie Traub Bibliography 247 Index 271 Illustrations Cover Image: Ellina Kevorkian, “Ophelia,” 2004 (Color). Courtesy of the artist 5.1 Lucy Maynard Salmon, “The Ubiquitous Laundry List,” 1925. Salmon Papers, 54.1. Courtesy Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College 99 5.2 Portrait Called Nathan Field. Courtesy of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 105 5.3 Linen room in doll’s house of Petronella Dunois, Anonymous, c. 1676. Courtesy Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 109 9.1 Liz McGrath, “The Eyes of Dead Ophelia/Ophelia’s Head,” 2004. Courtesy of the artist 177 9.2 Ellina Kevorkian, “Ophelia,” 2004 (B&W). Courtesy of the artist 180 This page intentionally left blank Notes on Contributors Bernadette Andrea is the Celia Jacobs Endowed Professor in British Literature, Department of English, University of Texas at San Antonio. Her books include Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Early Modern England and Islamic Worlds, with Linda McJannet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); and English Women Staging Islam, 1696–1707 (University of Toronto Press, 2012). Crystal Bartolovich is associate professor of English at Syracuse University. She is the author, with Jean Howard and David Hillman of Marx and Freud: The Great Shakespeareans (2012/2014). With Neil Lazarus, she edited Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Her current book project is entitled A Natural History of the Common. Kimberly Ann Coles is associate professor of English at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Religion, Reform, and Women’s Writing in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2008). With Ralph Bauer, Zita Nunes, and Carla Peterson she edited The Cultural Politics of Blood, 1500–1900 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). She is currently writing a book concerning the constitution of belief in early modern England. Richard Halpern is Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature and professor of English at New York University. He is the author of Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence (University of Chicago Press, 2006) Shakespeare’s Perfume: Sodomy and Sublimity in Shakespeare, Wilde, Freud, and Lacan (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002) Shakespeare among the Moderns (Cornell University Press, 1997) The Poetics of Primitive Accumulation: English Renaissance Culture and the Genealogy of Capital (Cornell University Press, 1991). His most recent book project is on political economy and tragic drama from Aeschylus to Beckett. Diana E. Henderson is professor of Literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of Passion Made Public: Elizabethan Lyric, Gender, and Performance (University of Illinois Press, 1995) and Collaborations with the Past: Reshaping Shakespeare Across Time and Media (Cornell University Press, 2006; paperback 2012). She has edited A Concise Companion to Shakespeare on Screen (Blackwell, 2006) and Alternative Shakespeares 3 (New Accents series, Routledge, 2008). She is a participant in MIT’s Global Shakespeares initiatives and, with James Siemon, coedits Shakespeare Studies. Sujata Iyengar, professor of English at the University of Georgia, is the author of Shades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Color in Early Modern England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), Shakespeare’s Medical Language