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Palgrave Macmillan

Shakespeare, Tragedy and Menopause

The Anxious Womb

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Victoria L. McMahon

    1. Winnipeg, Canada

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  • The first comprehensive study of the female body and menopause in Shakespeare
  • Focuses on demystifying the menopause through a historical and literary lens
  • Expands on existing scholarship by combining literary, art-historical, medical and gender-based fields of enquiry

Part of the book series: Palgrave Shakespeare Studies (PASHST)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. “Bedlam Dames and Fowle Hags”: Uterine Pathologies and Menopausal Ambiguities

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 1-66

  3. Gertrude and the Petrifying Gorgon Womb

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 67-107

  4. Tamora and the Invasive Vegetable Womb

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 109-151

  5. Volumnia and the Sacrificial Animal Womb

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 153-193

  6. Lady Macbeth and the Envious Womb

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 195-241

  7. Menopausal Cleopatra and the Hybrid Cyborg Womb

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 243-286

  8. Conclusion

    • Victoria L. McMahon
    Pages 287-291

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 293-303
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Keywords

About this book

Shakespeare was not only aware of the socio-cultural fears and anxieties generated by the older woman’s body but with the characterization of his tragic ageing females, Shakespeare becomes the first literary giant to explore the physiological and psychosocial condition that we have come to know as ‘menopause’. Although ‘menopause’ was not defined as a medical, physiological or sociocultural event for the early moderns, this book argues that such a medical and cultural transition can, in fact, be identified by sub-textual clues distinguished by various embodied anxieties. It explores several ageing women of the Shakespearean tragedies as they transition through this liminal menopausal period. Theoretically underscored by humoral theory, the analysis is metonymically centered upon the womb as the seat of menopausal anxiety. These menopausal undercurrents, not only permeate the dramatic action of each play, but also emanate outward to reflect the medical, physiological, cultural, social,and religious concerns generated by the ageing woman of the early modern period at large.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Winnipeg, Canada

    Victoria L. McMahon

About the author

Born and raised in Warwickshire, Dr. V. L. McMahon holds advanced degrees in Education, English, and Theatre. As an arts educator for over thirty years, McMahon has written, taught, and implemented Drama and English curricula in Canada’s public school system. Having lectured in the Faculties of Theatre and English at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, McMahon is also an actor, director, playwright, and dramaturge and holds a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.

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