Contextual Guide to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

Jyotsna G. Singh is Professor Emerita in the Department of English at Michigan State University. Her key publications include The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist Politics (co-authored with Dympna Callaghan and Lorraine Helms, 1994), Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues: ‘Discoveries’ of India in the Language of Colonialism (1996), Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory (2019), Travel Knowledge (co-edited with Ivo Kamps, 2001), and A Companion to the Global Renaissance: Literature and Culture in the Era of Expansion, 1500–1700 (2009, 2021). Daniel Vitkus is Professor and Rebeca Hickel Endowed Chair in Elizabethan Literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Turning Turk: English Theater and the Multicultural Mediterranean, 1570-1630 (2003) and of numerous articles and book chapters on the literature and cultural history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vitkus is also the editor of Piracy, Slavery and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England (2001) and Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England (2000).

This magnificent volume is just what we have been waiting for. The range of sources and cultural materials is stunning; the images provided are thought-provoking and exciting. The preparation of the materials – footnotes and cultural information to make the primary sources more accessible, plus commentary to explain – is a brilliant touch!

• List of FiguresAbout this VolumeAcknowledgementsChronology: Key Historical Events, 82–19 BCEFamily Trees: Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar, PompeyIntroduction. Infinite Variety: A Contextual Guide to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra1. History and Prophecy2. Myth3. Geography4. Gender, Desire, Eroticism5. Theatricality, Festivity, Spectacle6. Emblematic PerspectivesCoda. Antony and Cleopatra's AfterlivesBibliographyIndex