From one of the country s foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration fierce, funny, fearless of the women of Shakespeare s plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption. Beginning with the early comedies ( ...
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From one of the country s foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration fierce, funny, fearless of the women of Shakespeare s plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption. Beginning with the early comedies ( The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors ), Packer shows that Shakespeare wrote the women of these plays as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no definable independent thought, virgins on the pedestal. The women of the histories (the three parts of Henry VI ; Richard III ) are, Packer shows, much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc, possibly the first woman character Shakespeare ever created. In her opening scene, she s wonderfully alive a virgin, true, sent from heaven, a country girl going to lead men bravely into battle, the kind of girl Shakespeare could have known and loved in Stratford. Her independent resolution collapses within a few scenes, as Shakespeare himself suddenly turns against her, and she yields to the common caricature of his culture and becomes Joan the Enemy, the Warrior Woman, the witch; a woman to be feared and destroyed . . . As Packer turns her attention to the extraordinary Juliet, the author perceives a large shift. Suddenly Shakespeare s women have depth of character, motivation, understanding of life more than equal to that of the men; once Juliet has led the way, the plays are never the same again. As Shakespeare ceases to write about women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, embodying their voices, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Juliet is just as passionately in love as Romeo risking everything, initiating marriage, getting into bed, fighting courageously when her parents threaten to disown her and just as bravein facing death when she discovers Romeo is dead.And, wondering if Shakespeare himself fell in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare writes the women as if he were a woman, giving them desires, needs, ambition, insight. Women of Will follows Shakespeare s development as a human being, from youth to enlightened maturity, exploring the spiritual journey he undertook. Packer shows that Shakespeare s imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can and do change the world. Part master class, part brilliant analysis Women of Will is all inspiring discovery."
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Add this copy of Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's to cart. $27.36, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2016 by Brilliance Audio.
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Add this copy of Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's to cart. $9.85, good condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Knopf.
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Pages and cover are intact. Used book in good and clean conditions. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks.
Add this copy of Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's to cart. $10.79, very good condition, Sold by The Yard Sale Store rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Narrowsburg, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Brilliance Audio.
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Very Good. 12 BRAND NEW AUDIO CDS. NEW IN THE SHRINK WRAP. Just a bit of shelf wear to the box. NEW CDS INSIDE. Enjoy this RELIABLE AUDIO CD performance for your home and library.
Add this copy of Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's to cart. $11.78, very good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Brilliance Audio.
Add this copy of Women of Will: the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays to cart. $12.00, very good condition, Sold by Northshire Bookstore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Manchester Center, VT, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Knopf Publishing Group.
