Mothers and Daughters. Gender and Genre in Shakespeareʼs Plays

Florian Neunstöcklin

Mothers and Daughters. Gender and Genre in Shakespeareʼs Plays

ISBN 978-3-86821-983-8, 262 S., kt., € 34,50 (2023)

(Schriftenreihe Literaturwissenschaft, Bd. 99)

Throughout his career, Shakespeare invented a plethora of maternal characters. In his plays one can find compliant patriarchal wives next to rebellious and misandrous widows, motherly friends and confidantes alongside evil stepmothers, and there are pregnant mothers who are separated from their child immediately after birth. Because of this great interest in different aspects of motherhood, it is striking that Shakespeare’s plays so rarely depict the family relationship between a mother and her biological daughter. Mother-daughter relationships are not only marginalized within Shakespeare’s dramatic oeuvre in general, but also within the plots of the six plays where they actually do appear. This analysis brings together close readings ranging from Shakespeare’s earlier plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V. and The Merry Wives of Windsor to the late tragicomedies Pericles and The Winter’s Tale in order to show that the highly different and contrasting types of motherhood have strong repercussions on the (im)possibilities of imagining and staging mother-daughter relationships within the different genres of Shakespearean drama. The study is informed by an interdisciplinary approach that links Shakespeare and feminist criticism with psycho-analysis and gender and genre studies.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)

Pressestimmen

"Neunstöcklin’s analysis proves worthwhile, particularly in its endeavour to situate familial relationships within socio-historical contexts. Especially suggestive is the author’s argument that depictions of gender are directly related to the evolution of generic forms. This intriguing thesis demands that we look at Shakespeare’s plays from a new, and rewarding, angle, and this perspective should serve as a spur for future work."

Emily Smith, Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 65 (2024)

"A well-written introduction identifies mother-daughter relationships as a lacuna of Shakespeare scholarship and discusses early modern understandings of gender, the development of the nuclear family in the period, and the companionate marriage model. The introduction also identifies the question of genre as key to understanding these relationships. The body of the study is comprised of four parts: Chapter 2 explores mother-daughter relationships in Romeo and Juliet (1597), Henry V (c. 1599), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597), focusing on how mothers in these plays value dynastic concerns before emotional concerns when participating in marriage negotiations for their daughters and thus support the dominance of patriarchy. Macbeth (1606), Coriolanus (c. 1608/09), King Lear (c. 1604/05), and The Tempest (c. 1610/11), Chapter 3 argues, are characterized by an "absent presence" – either of the daughter or of the mother. While both Macbeth and Coriolanus feature reversals of gender roles, as female figures take on political agency and male figures find themselves emasculated, Lear searches for a daughter willing to act as his own wife/mother, and the island in The Tempest is plagued by what Neunstöcklin calls "matriarchal fantasies". In Chapter 4, the staging of pregnancy and the threat that female generativity poses to patriarchal authority is explored in reference to the two tragicomedies, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607) and The Winter's Tale (c. 1610); significantly, shortly after the births of these plays' daughter figures, the mothers are removed from the action of the plot, only reappearing in the final scenes, suggesting the plays' "decidedly male perspective that is dominated by misogyny, suspicion, and insecurity". Chapter 5, reads Shakespeare's late play Cymbeline (1610/11) alongside Hamlet (c. 1601), noting that both plays feature the "evil stepmother," "bad mother-in-law," "good absent mother" stereotype and contrast it to a pure, innocent female virgin (Innogen, Ophelia). Mothers and Daughters contributes to a better understanding of parent-child relationships in Shakespeare's oeuvre and engages in interesting close-readings of more minor characters in Shakespeare's canon. Its claims about the connection between mother-daughter relationships and genre are intriguing. What the work sets out to do – explore the lack of representations of developed mother-daughter relationships and what Shakespeare foregrounds instead – it does well."

Nikolina Hatton, Anglistik – International Journal of English Studies 35.3 (2024)