Yasmin Arshad – författare

Shakespeare's characterization of Cleopatra may dominate the collective consciousness, but he was only one of several 16th-century writers fascinated by the enigmatic queen of Egypt. Early modern conceptions of Cleopatra offer a rich, complex, and variable set of models for understanding the period’s responses to race, female sovereignty, and classical antiquity. This interdisciplinary study investigates images of Cleopatra in the early modern period and examines how her story was mediated and used – from drawing lessons from history to being a symbol of female heroism. It draws on early historiographical works, political and philosophical treatises, coterie dramatic productions, and gender, race and performance studies, as well as evidence from material culture, to consider what was known and thought about Cleopatra in the period This book provides a new literary and cultural history of one of the world’s most contested and politically-charged iconic female figures. It combines a close reading of literary and dramatic works with historical and political contexts, paying particular attention to the three major early modern Cleopatra plays: Mary Sidney’s translation of Robert Garnier’s Marc Antoine, Samuel Daniel’s The Tragedie of Cleopatra, and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. By examining these conflicting historical and fictional identities, Yasmin Arshad offers a diverse and ground-breaking study of Cleopatra’s ‘infinite variety’.

Shakespeare''s characterization of Cleopatra may dominate the collective consciousness, but he was only one of several 16th-century writers fascinated by the enigmatic queen of Egypt. Early modern conceptions of Cleopatra offer a rich, complex, and variable set of models for understanding the period''s responses to race, female sovereignty, and classical antiquity. This interdisciplinary study investigates images of Cleopatra in the early modern period and examines how her story was mediated and used – from drawing lessons from history to being a symbol of female heroism. It draws on early historiographical works, political and philosophical treatises, coterie dramatic productions, and gender, race and performance studies, as well as evidence from material culture, to consider what was known and thought about Cleopatra in the period This book provides a new literary and cultural history of one of the world''s most contested and politically-charged iconic female figures. It combines a close reading of literary and dramatic works with historical and political contexts, paying particular attention to the three major early modern Cleopatra plays: Mary Sidney''s translation of Robert Garnier''s Marc Antoine, Samuel Daniel''s The Tragedie of Cleopatra, and Shakespeare''s Antony and Cleopatra. By examining these conflicting historical and fictional identities, Yasmin Arshad offers a diverse and ground-breaking study of Cleopatra''s ''infinite variety''.

Shakespeare''s characterization of Cleopatra may dominate the collective consciousness, but he was only one of several 16th-century writers fascinated by the enigmatic queen of Egypt. Early modern conceptions of Cleopatra offer a rich, complex, and variable set of models for understanding the period''s responses to race, female sovereignty, and classical antiquity. This interdisciplinary study investigates images of Cleopatra in the early modern period and examines how her story was mediated and used – from drawing lessons from history to being a symbol of female heroism. It draws on early historiographical works, political and philosophical treatises, coterie dramatic productions, and gender, race and performance studies, as well as evidence from material culture, to consider what was known and thought about Cleopatra in the period This book provides a new literary and cultural history of one of the world''s most contested and politically-charged iconic female figures. It combines a close reading of literary and dramatic works with historical and political contexts, paying particular attention to the three major early modern Cleopatra plays: Mary Sidney''s translation of Robert Garnier''s Marc Antoine, Samuel Daniel''s The Tragedie of Cleopatra, and Shakespeare''s Antony and Cleopatra. By examining these conflicting historical and fictional identities, Yasmin Arshad offers a diverse and ground-breaking study of Cleopatra''s ''infinite variety''.

Shakespeare's characterization of Cleopatra may dominate the collective consciousness, but he was only one of several 16th-century writers fascinated by the enigmatic queen of Egypt. Early modern conceptions of Cleopatra offer a rich, complex, and variable set of models for understanding the period’s responses to race, female sovereignty, and classical antiquity. This interdisciplinary study investigates images of Cleopatra in the early modern period and examines how her story was mediated and used – from drawing lessons from history to being a symbol of female heroism. It draws on early historiographical works, political and philosophical treatises, coterie dramatic productions, and gender, race and performance studies, as well as evidence from material culture, to consider what was known and thought about Cleopatra in the period This book provides a new literary and cultural history of one of the world’s most contested and politically-charged iconic female figures. It combines a close reading of literary and dramatic works with historical and political contexts, paying particular attention to the three major early modern Cleopatra plays: Mary Sidney’s translation of Robert Garnier’s Marc Antoine, Samuel Daniel’s The Tragedie of Cleopatra, and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. By examining these conflicting historical and fictional identities, Yasmin Arshad offers a diverse and ground-breaking study of Cleopatra’s ‘infinite variety’.

Were Renaissance women merely passive and voiceless subjects in the cultures of portraiture through which they were represented? Did they have the opportunity to challenge the prevailing visual tropes that reproduced gender stereotypes? Did they create iconographical programmes for their own social and political ends? This collection of interdisciplinary essays examines the representation of women at the intersection between portraiture, literature, drama, heritage and material culture in Renaissance Britain. It explores how power, politics and patronage manifested across text, cultural inscription and ‘portraiture’ – defined in its broadest sense as a cultural artefact expressive of the female image and identity. Contributors cover (self-)portraits, miniatures, engravings, sculptures, embroideries, murals, emblems, illuminated manuscripts, jewellery, coins, curated collections, theatrical props, calligraphy and other decorative and architectural features. Bringing together art historians, curators, heritage specialists and scholars of early modern history and literature, this volume situates women as the active subjects and creators of ‘cultures of portraiture’. It reveals how female power was negotiated through the royal icon; how women used patronage, pedagogy and encryption to forge female networks and navigate the dangerous worlds of religious and courtly factionalism; and how art, drama and literature reflected anxieties around women’s creative agency. It demonstrates that these practices were not purely localised, but that women’s portraiture connected England – conceptually, materially and ideologically – to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Spain, Rome, the Netherlands, Africa, Persia and the Islamic world; that women employed an ‘activist intermediality’ to re-define their ‘portraits’ as tools for public identity-building, political commentary, social disruption and cross-national dialogue.

Were Renaissance women merely passive and voiceless subjects in the cultures of portraiture through which they were represented? Did they have the opportunity to challenge the prevailing visual tropes that reproduced gender stereotypes? Did they create iconographical programmes for their own social and political ends? This collection of interdisciplinary essays examines the representation of women at the intersection between portraiture, literature, drama, heritage and material culture in Renaissance Britain. It explores how power, politics and patronage manifested across text, cultural inscription and 'portraiture' defined in its broadest sense as a cultural artefact expressive of the female image and identity. Contributors cover (self-)portraits, miniatures, engravings, sculptures, embroideries, murals, emblems, illuminated manuscripts, jewellery, coins, curated collections, theatrical props, calligraphy and other decorative and architectural features. Bringing together art historians, curators, heritage specialists and scholars of early modern history and literature, this volume situates women as the active subjects and creators of 'cultures of portraiture'. It reveals how female power was negotiated through the royal icon; how women used patronage, pedagogy and encryption to forge female networks and navigate the dangerous worlds of religious and courtly factionalism; and how art, drama and literature reflected anxieties around women's creative agency. It demonstrates that these practices were not purely localised, but that women's portraiture connected England conceptually, materially and ideologically to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Spain, Rome, the Netherlands, Africa, Persia and the Islamic world; that women employed an 'activist intermediality' to re-define their 'portraits' as tools for public identity-building, political commentary, social disruption and cross-national dialogue.