About the Book:

In the elegant and provocative text Shakespeare's Feminine Endings, scholar Philippa Berry rewrites critical perceptions of death in Shakespeare's tragedies from a feminist perspective.

Drawing on feminist theory, postmodern thought and queer theory, she challenges existing critical notions of what is fundamental to Shakespearean tragedy. She argues that there is a figurative rejection of death as terminus, which owes more to pagan thought than Christian.

Through her close reading of the main tragedies, Philippa Berry discovers a sensuous and meditative Shakespearean discourse of materialism. The scope of these tragic speculations was radical in Shakespeare's day, yet they also have a surprising relevance to current debates about gender and sexuality, as well as to contemporary discussions of time and matter. 

What people say:

"…an important approach to literary studies generally, asking us to think about the ways that secondary meanings and associations might reveal anxieties and equivocations below the surface of what we think we can hear." — Times Literary Supplement

"The book's great triumph is that one puts it down believing that without it, those conventional readings are no longer complete." — Stephen Cohen, University of South Alabama

"Suitable for ... undergraduates, graduates and researchers." — Choice

About the Author:

Philippa Berry is a Fellow and Director of Studies in English at King's College, University of Cambridge. She combines interdisciplinary research in English and European Renaissance culture with work on feminist and postmodern theory. She is the author of Shakespeare's Feminine Endings: Disfiguring Death in the Tragedies.