Neither shrew nor sheep: the defiant voice in three of Shakespeare’s female characters

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Bárbara Novais de
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: [e-mail]
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UERJ
• Texto Completo: http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/18601
• topic: The shrew; The scold; Rebellious women; Shakespeare feminist criticism; William Shakespeare; Megera (shrew); Barraqueira (scold); Mulheres rebeldes; Crítica feminista shakespeariana; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 – Crítica e interpretação; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 – Personagens – Mulheres; Mulheres na literatura; Literatura inglesa – História e crítica; LINGUISTICA, LETRAS E ARTES::LETRAS::LITERATURAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS

This study aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the figure of the “rebellious woman” (UNDERDOWN, 1985) and its modes of representation in Shakespearean drama. Departing from William Shakespeare’s use of the “shrew” comic archetype, from medieval literature, and the historical “scold”, and considering the not always exact juxtaposition made by literary critics of these two figures, I discuss three female characters from plays of different genres – Katherina, from the comedy The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1592-4); Paulina, from the romance The Winter’s Tale (1611), and Lady Macbeth, from the tragedy Macbeth (1605-6) – suggesting that Shakespeare makes unusual combinations between “shrews” and “scolds”, blurring, as usual, the boundaries between comedy and tragedy, public sphere and private life.