Publisher's Synopsis
If the culture-induced hypnosis is wearing off, it is partly because of studies likeThe Shakespearean Wild. Plunging into a psychological jungle, Roberts examines the distinctions in various Shakespeare plays between wild nature and subduing civilization and shows how gender stereotypes are affixed to those distinctions. Taking her cue from Socrates, Roberts transports the reader to three kinds of "Wilds" that impinge on Shakespeare's literary world: the mysterious "female Wild, often associated with the malign and benign forces of [nature]; the animal Wild, which offers both reassurance of special human status and the threat of the loss of that status; and the barbarian Wild populated by marginal figures such as the Moor and the Jew as well as various hybrids."
The Shakespearean Wildbrims with mystery and menace, the exotic and erotic; with male and female archetypes, projections of suppressed fears and fantasies. The reader will see how the male vision of culture—exemplified in Shakespeare's work—has reduced, distorted, and oversimplified the potentiality of women.