British Shakespeare Association Biennial Conference 2005
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Programme : Panels - Seminars - Workshops
Seminar - Shakespeare’s Lewd Interpreters
Friday 2nd September 2005, 2.00-3.30pm,
Bedson Teaching Centre LG37
Participants | Abstracts | Call for Papers
Participants
Convenor - Mark Dooley, University of Teesside
Peter Kulling, University of New Brunswick,
Canada’s Queer Quartos: Challenging Identities in
Canadian Theatrical Appropriations of Shakespeare
Emma Rees, University of Chester
'"Beneath is all the fiend's": Lear's vaginas, or,
Cordelia's can't'
Sarah Atkinson, University of Teeside,
Bisexuality within ‘Women’s Time’: Antony
and Cleopatra
Abstracts
'"Beneath is all the fiend's": Lear's
vaginas, or, Cordelia's can't'
Emma Rees, University of Chester
In my paper I will examine how the female body – and, specifically, the vagina – is represented in King Lear. The early-modern preoccupation with the imminence of a descent into anarchy was frequently figured by the trope of the world turned upside down. King Lear confronts and dramatises this cultural impulse in a variety of ways. On the one hand, Gloucester’s venerable musings about the social schisms exemplified by his monarch’s vain impetuousness play absolutely into the convention of the time, and are memorably parodied by the wicked Edmund as he attempts to weave his gullible brother into his plot. On the other hand, in his carnivalesque representation of female sexuality, Shakespeare developed the image of social inversion, pushing its misogynist ramifications to the limit and focusing on the vagina, making replete with meaning Cordelia’s ‘nothing’ of the opening Act. The demonisation of the woman via the vagina of course reaches its peak in Lear’s Act IV tirade against the ‘centaurs’ and their ‘sulphury pit[s]’. This in turn, as Kathleen McLuskie has claimed, encourages an ultimately collusive response from Shakespeare’s audience; a response which feminist critics may experience with considerable unease.
Call for Papers
Below is the original Call for Papers, as circulated. Please note that the date for submissions has passed and the successful participants and the titles of their papers are listed above.
Convenor: Mark Dooley, University of Teesside
The seminar will aim to bring together a group of unashamedly ‘lewd interpreters’ who are interested in exploring the highly contested issues of sex and sexuality in the Shakespearean canon. The seminar will also aim to explore the critical and methodological strategies employed by such ‘lewd interpreters’ in their work.
Potential topics may include:
• Looking for sex in Shakespeare
• Homoeroticism (performance and / or interpretation)
• ‘Sexing up’ the bard: Adaptations and eroticism
• Poetry and sexuality
• Queering the canon: Shakespeare’s changing position in the curriculum
• Race and sexuality
• Representations of the body
• Deviance
It is hoped that the seminar will provide a space within the conference for scholars with an interest in the politics of sexuality in general and in their negotiation in the work of Shakespeare in particular. Individuals with an interest in film, performance, adaptation and education, as well as literary critics, are warmly invited to contribute to the development of the agenda for the seminar.
Contact: Mark Dooley (m.dooley@tees.ac.uk)
