Overcoming binaries - Creative approaches to "Antony and Cleopatra" in feminist and post-structuralist theory

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: 1,3, LMU Munich (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Shakespeare¿s Tragedies, language: English, abstract: ¿Ja, diese Cleopatra ist ein Weib, in der holdseligsten und

vermaledeitesten Bedeutung des Wortes.¿ (Heine 1978: 57)

This statement ¿ having been published in 1838 ¿ lacks both the

scientific objectivity and the political correctness that we today

consider crucial for any literary criticism. Yet while already

containing the important aspects: the dichotomy ¿holdselig¿ vs.

¿vermaledeit¿, it stresses the importance of the female protagonist and

considers her a prototype of ¿the female¿. Many critics followed the

German poet and important critic of the time (who was far from

limiting his criticism to literature) in all three points.

The aim of this paper is to discuss feminist approaches to the play ¿

most prominently the one of Coppélia Kahn ¿ and to point out ways in

which post-structuralist theories could complement these approaches.

I will base my argumentation on the Arden edition of Antony and

Cleopatra, mostly because the annotations allow for a comparison of

the text to Shakespeare¿s source, Plutarch. The changes, the varying

importance given to events, passages and dramatic intention ¿ these

all turn out to be extremely helpful.