Susquehanna University Press – serie

Long a figure of spectacular epic imagination appearing in the central cosmological and philosophical literatures extending as far back as the Hellenic texts, "hermaphrodites" have been made to bear the burden of cultural anxieties regarding sexual difference and the transgression of boundaries separating male from female, men from women, in a strained binary system. As threatening evidence that sex is not the natural basis upon which oppositional gender roles are built, the intersexed are made to disappear into normative categories, thus aligning once again the rightful place of male and female as opposites.

Can there be a virtue in vengeance? Can revenge do ethical work? Can revenge be the obligation of women? This wide-ranging literary study looks at Shakespeare’s women and finds bold answers to questions such as these. A surprising number of Shakespeare’s female characters respond to moral outrages by expressing a strong desire for vengeance. This book’s analysis of these characters and their circumstances offers incisive critical perceptions of feminine anger, ethics, and agency and challenges our assumptions about the role of gender in revenge. In this provocative book, Marguerite A. Tassi counters longstanding critical opinions on revenge: that it is the sole province of men in Western literature and culture, that it is a barbaric, morally depraved, irrational instinct, and that it is antithetical to justice. Countless examples have been mined from Shakespeare’s dramas to reveal women’s profound concerns with revenge and justice, honor and shame, crime and punishment. In placing the critical focus on avenging women, this book significantly redresses a gender imbalance in scholarly treatments of revenge, particularly in early modern literature.

Essays include studies on Grave's literary criticism, new insights into his poetry and fiction, reflections on the origins of his White Goddess and examinations of the literary cross-currents that have pollinated his work. The essays draw on new biographical material and manuscripts that have come to light in the last ten years.

The White Goddess is the most remarkable work of an extraordinary writer. Presenting the personal mythology and poetic theories of Robert Graves, a major modern poet, it is essential reading for anyone concerned with poetry, myth, gender or religion, and has been a vital source of inspiration for poets and scholars ever since its appearance in 1948. The essays collected here survey the approaches currently undertaken toward analyzing and discussing The White Goddess as well as the opinions on the work of international scholars whose approaches include biography, cultural history, literary criticism, textual studies, and Celtic studies.