Shakespeare's Body Language: Shaming Gestures and Gender Politics on the Renaissance Stage

Shakespeare's Body Language explores the use of gestures in Shakespearean drama to shame individuals and reveal social tensions. It argues that gestures are embodied social metaphors that reflect gendered expectations and honor-shame dynamics. The book offers in-depth analyses of plays across Shakespeare's career and demonstrates how theatrical gestures can create dramatic tension and relevance to modern audiences.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 20 May 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Shakespeare's Body Language is a groundbreaking new study of Shakespearean drama that delves into the previously unseen history of social tensions hidden within the performance of gestures. This book establishes how shame is often rooted in the gendered expectations of the Renaissance era. It explores how the performance of gestures such as figging, the cuckolds horns, and even the in-action of stillness created shaming spectacles on the early modern stage and in wider society. Shakespeares Body Language argues that gestures are embodied social metaphors that epitomize the personal as political. It reveals the tensions of everyday life as key motivators behind the actions of Shakespeare's characters and considers how honor and its opposite, shame, are constructed in terms of gender norms.

The book features in-depth analyses of plays across Shakespeare's career, exploring how the playwright's understanding of shame and humiliation is rooted in performance anxiety and gender politics. It explains how theatrical gestures can create dramatic tension in a way that words alone cannot. This book offers both rich insights into the early modern context of Shakespeare's drama and confirms the startling relevance of his work to modern audiences.

In conclusion, Shakespeare's Body Language is a groundbreaking study that sheds light on the previously unseen history of social tensions hidden within the performance of gestures in Shakespearean drama. It establishes how shame is often rooted in the gendered expectations of the Renaissance era and explores how the performance of gestures such as figging, the cuckolds horns, and even the in-action of stillness created shaming spectacles on the early modern stage and in wider society. The book argues that gestures are embodied social metaphors that epitomize the personal as political and reveals the tensions of everyday life as key motivators behind the actions of Shakespeare's characters. It offers rich insights into the early modern context of Shakespeare's drama and confirms the startling relevance of his work to modern audiences.

Weight: 286g
Dimension: 127 x 197 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350228146