Shakespeare and Domestic Loss

This book re-examines some of Shakespeare’s best-known texts in the light of their engagement with the forms of deprivation which threatened domestic security in early modern England. Burglary, the loss of home, and the early deaths of parents emerge as central and very telling issues in Shakespearean drama. Heather Dubrow recovers the particular significance of home, especially in relation to gender, male and female subjectivity. She relates the plays to Shakespeare’s poetry (The Rape of Lucrece), and to early modern cultural texts such as the literature of roguery; she also introduces illuminating perspectives from contemporary social problems (notably crime), twentieth-century poetry, and popular culture. One of the most vital aspects of this fascinating study is to connect concerns at the cutting edge of cultural studies (such as the construction of transgressive Others) to more traditional literary concerns such as genre, especially the workings of romance and pastoral.

• New study of a major topic in Shakespeare, covering many of his best-known plays and poems • Connects concerns at the cutting edge of cultural studies (such as gender, subjectivity and the construction of transgressive Others) to more traditional literary concerns such as genre • Author is a senior scholar with five books to her name

1. Introduction: the circular staircase; 2. ‘The forefended place’: burglary; 3. ‘No place to fly to’: loss of dwellings; 4. ‘I fear there will a worse come in his place’: the early death of parents; 5. Conclusion: the art of losing; Index.

‘Dubrow’s study provides ample evidence that the theme of loss, as a material concern, an emotional experience, and a structuring principle of life, is everywhere apparent in Shakespeare’s work.’ Helen Moore, Review of English Studies