Shakespeare was a woman and other heresies : how doubting the bard became the biggest taboo in literature Cover Image

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Shakespeare was a woman and other heresies : how doubting the bard became the biggest taboo in literature / Elizabeth Winkler.

Winkler, Elizabeth (Journalist), (author.).

Summary:

The theory that Shakespeare may not have written the works that bear his name is the most horrible, vexed, unspeakable subject in the history of English literature. Scholars admit that the Bard's biography is a "black hole," yet to publicly question the identity of the god of English literature is unaccceptable, even (some say) "immoral." In Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, journalist and literary critic Elizabeth Winkler sets out to probe the origins of this literary taboo. Whisking readers from London to Stratford-upon-Avon to Washington, DC, she pulls back the curtain to show how the forces of nationalism and empire, religion and mythmaking, gender and class have shaped our admiration for Shakespeare across the centuries. As she considers the writers and thinkers--from Walt Whitman to Sigmund Freud to Supreme Court justices--who have grappled with the riddle of the plays' origins, she ponders who may perhaps have been hiding behind his name. A forgotten woman? A disgraced aristocrat? A government spy? Hovering over the mystery are Shakespeare's plays themselves, with their love for mistaken identities, disguises, and things never quite being what they seem. -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781982171261
ISBN: 198217126X
Physical Description: xi, 399 pages ; illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Simon and Schuster, 2023.
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	The question that does not exist -- Biographical fiction -- Crafty cuttle -- Seeliest ignorance -- Bardolatry -- Aberration and the academy -- Wolfish earls -- Purple robes distained -- Some Heaven-born goddess -- The reckoning -- Negative capability.