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Speaking Truth to Power as Feminist Ethics in Richard III
- Author(s):
- Cristina León Alfar (see profile)
- Date:
- 2019
- Group(s):
- Gender Studies, LLC Shakespeare, Renaissance / Early Modern Studies, Shakespeare, TC Women’s and Gender Studies
- Subject(s):
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616, English drama, Sixteenth century, Seventeenth century, Feminist criticism, Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984, British literature, Drama
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- women and gender, Shakespeare and early modern drama, Michel Foucault, Early modern British literature, Gender studies, Shakespeare, Early modern drama
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/4008-ey11
- Abstract:
- In this essay Queen Margaret’s curses in Richard III become part of a feminist ethics on the early modern stage. As a parrhesiast, in Foucault’s terms, Margaret speaks truth to power and claims a right of citizenship. That Margaret elicits universal revulsion from the other characters while also holding a unique, though not untroubled, position of ethical authority is uncovered by the play’s women, who initially agree with their men but come to see her as a powerful speaker who will teach them how to curse. She does not, then, embody any of the traditionally “feminine” characteristics of silence, obedience, and filial and marital loyalty. But because propriety prohibits women from speaking, a feminist ethics must violate decorum and modesty. Feminist ethics as I define it does not require its speakers to be pure and uncorrupted; these are loaded cultural terms in any case. Rather, practitioners of feminist ethics speak from positions of authority that are deeply implicated in the ethical dilemmas of their plays.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 3 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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