Feminism in Shakespeare
Conventionally, feminism has little correlation with Shakespearean comedies; however, Claire McEachern attempts to address this topic with some degree of success in her article published in the Shakespeare Quarterly entitled "Fathering Herself: A Source Study of Shakespeare's Feminism". The author herself reveals the adversity face by feminists up against Shakespeare's male-dominated world by admitting, "Certainly, in considering "Shakespeare's feminism" (a debatable, and surely anachronistic, construction), the prospect of looking to Shakespeare's sources for the origins of any political understanding of the "woman's part" seems to offer little promise; behind the critical assertion that finds Shakespeare's portrayals of women remarkable lies the unarticulated suspicion of the rare if not unprecedented quality of his cultural voice". McEachern, while turning to the cultural voice of Renaissance patriarchy, fails to recognize the female community in Much Ado About Nothing within her study of feminism.
In her 1988 article, Claire McEachern examines the issue of feminism by utilizing several of Shakespeare's works, including Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear. Currently a professor at the University of California, McEachern first provides two previous schools of feministic thought prior to proposing her individual criticism. She identifies "two ideological camps" of criticism generally applied to Shakespearean plays. The first angle encompasses a pioneering first wave feminist critique, which hones in on Shakespeare's bias towards women through his use of primarily male characters and themes. This unique proto-feminist angle seeks out 'the women's part' in Shakespearean plays, usually characterized by liberated female roles. McEachern points out, however, that subsequent second feminist approaches reject this idea, and tend to focus more on the patriarchal aspects in terms of women. She mentions such feminist writers as Kathleen McLuskie, who suggests that Shakespeare is an author unable to undermine patriarchal structures; Instead Shakespeare is able only to reinforce a cultural stigma that portrays chiefly subservient women. McEachern departs from previous feminist views by specifically focusing on Shakespeare's patriarchy through his father-daughter relationships. She writes, "In the plays of Shakespeare that depict a father-daughter relationship, the issue of a woman's relationship to patriarchy inevitably gains a special kind of prominence." She highlights Gayle Rubin's "The Traffic in Women", which focuses on the idea that women in Shakespeare cannot simply be examined without also examining the context they are written in-namely the male community. McEachern agrees with Rubins, yet in turn falls short in examining women outside of an exclusively patriarchal context.
Conventionally, feminism has little correlation with Shakespearean comedies; however, Claire McEachern attempts to address this topic with some degree of success in her article published in the Shakespeare Quarterly entitled "Fathering Herself: A Source Study of Shakespeare's Feminism". The author herself reveals the adversity face by feminists up against Shakespeare's male-dominated world by admitting, "Certainly, in considering "Shakespeare's feminism" (a debatable, and surely anachronistic, construction), the prospect of looking to Shakespeare's sources for the origins of any political understanding of the "woman's part" seems to offer little promise; behind the critical assertion that finds Shakespeare's portrayals of women remarkable lies the unarticulated suspicion of the rare if not unprecedented quality of his cultural voice". McEachern, while turning to the cultural voice of Renaissance patriarchy, fails to recognize the female community in Much Ado About Nothing within her study of feminism.
In her 1988 article, Claire McEachern examines the issue of feminism by utilizing several of Shakespeare's works, including Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear. Currently a professor at the University of California, McEachern first provides two previous schools of feministic thought prior to proposing her individual criticism. She identifies "two ideological camps" of criticism generally applied to Shakespearean plays. The first angle encompasses a pioneering first wave feminist critique, which hones in on Shakespeare's bias towards women through his use of primarily male characters and themes. This unique proto-feminist angle seeks out 'the women's part' in Shakespearean plays, usually characterized by liberated female roles. McEachern points out, however, that subsequent second feminist approaches reject this idea, and tend to focus more on the patriarchal aspects in terms of women. She mentions such feminist writers as Kathleen McLuskie, who suggests that Shakespeare is an author unable to undermine patriarchal structures; Instead Shakespeare is able only to reinforce a cultural stigma that portrays chiefly subservient women. McEachern departs from previous feminist views by specifically focusing on Shakespeare's patriarchy through his father-daughter relationships. She writes, "In the plays of Shakespeare that depict a father-daughter relationship, the issue of a woman's relationship to patriarchy inevitably gains a special kind of prominence." She highlights Gayle Rubin's "The Traffic in Women", which focuses on the idea that women in Shakespeare cannot simply be examined without also examining the context they are written in-namely the male community. McEachern agrees with Rubins, yet in turn falls short in examining women outside of an exclusively patriarchal context.
