Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies

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Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies
Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies.jpeg
AuthorElizabeth Winkler
CountryUnited States of America
Subject Shakespeare authorship question
Genre Nonfiction, literary criticism
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date
May 9, 2023
Pages416
ISBN 978-1-982171-26-1

Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies is a 2023 nonfiction book by journalist Elizabeth Winkler about the Shakespeare authorship question. The book uses journalism and literary criticism to explore the possibility that the works of Shakespeare were written by someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. It also details the history of how the Shakespeare authorship question became an academic taboo.

Contents

Published by Simon & Schuster under the full title Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature, the book contains interviews with various Shakespeare scholars, including Stanley Wells, Alexander Waugh, Marjorie Garber, Stephen Greenblatt, Ros Barber, Michael Witmore and Mark Rylance. Winkler explores arguments for alternate authorship candidates, including Edward de Vere, Mary Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, and Emilia Bassano. She also describes in detail the correspondence about the authorship question between Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro. [1]

Background and Publication History

Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies was published in the United States by Simon & Schuster on May 9, 2023. [2]

In 2019 Winkler, who holds English degrees from Princeton and Stanford, published an article in The Atlantic titled "Was Shakespeare a Woman?" in which she explored the possibility that the plays attributed to William Shakespeare may have been written by the poet Emilia Bassano. [3] [4]

Winkler received heavy backlash for the article, prompting The Atlantic to commission five response articles from well-known Shakespeare figures, including Mark Rylance, James Shapiro, and Phyllis Rackin. [5] Shapiro in "Shakespeare Wrote Insightfully About Women. That Doesn't Mean He Was One" expressed disappointment that a talented journalist for The Wall Street Journal would promote a conspiracy theory in The Atlantic. [6] Rackin argued that there likely were many hidden women writers in Elizabethan theater. [7]

In an April 2023 interview with the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, Winkler stated that the book grew as a response to the controversy about her article. She wanted to explore why the Shakespeare authorship question is so explosive and why it became such a taboo to question Shakespeare. [8]

Reception

Despite its controversial subject matter, Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies has been generally well received by critics, with positive reviews published in The Guardian , [9] Publisher's Weekly , [10] Kirkus Reviews, [11] Winnipeg Free Press, [12] and The Southern Bookseller Review, among others. In The Guardian, Stephanie Merritt compared the book to a detective story and praised Winkler's journalistic approach to the subject matter. [9] Michael Dirda in The Washington Post praised Winkler's research skills and writing style. [13]

Winkler's book has also received support from anti-Stratfordian organizations such as the De Vere Society, [14] the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, [15] and the Shakespearean Authorship Trust. [8]

Slate published a review by Isaac Butler in which he compliments Winkler's writing style and humor but says her arguments quickly fall apart under careful examination. He criticises the book as using rhetoric and strategies similar to other pernicious trutherisms such as climate change denial or anti-vax beliefs. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship</span> Alternative Shakespeare authorship theory

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delia Bacon</span> American writer

Delia Salter Bacon was an American writer of plays and short stories and Shakespeare scholar. She is best known for her work on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, which she attributed to social reformers including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and others.

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Marjorie Garber is an American professor at Harvard University and the author of a wide variety of books, most notably ones about William Shakespeare and aspects of popular culture including sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Thomas Looney</span> English school teacher (1870–1944)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rylance</span> British actor, playwright and theatre director (born 1960)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Shakespeare authorship question</span>

Note: In compliance with the accepted terminology used within the Shakespeare authorship question, this article uses the term "Stratfordian" to refer to the position that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was the primary author of the plays and poems traditionally attributed to him. The term "anti-Stratfordian" is used to refer to the theory that some other author, or authors, wrote the works.

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References

  1. ↑ Steidle, Sophie (2024-02-13). "Newsmakers Q&A: Elizabeth Winkler '11 Dissects the Furor Over Shakespeare's ID". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  2. ↑ Winkler, Elizabeth (2023-05-09). Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-9821-7126-1.
  3. ↑ Winkler, Elizabeth (2019-05-10). "Was Shakespeare a Woman?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  4. ↑ Smith, David (2023-06-27). ""It was shocking": the author under attack for doubting Shakespeare". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
  5. ↑ "Shakespeare and Company". The Atlantic. 2019-06-08. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  6. ↑ Shapiro, James (2019-06-08). "Shakespeare Wrote Insightfully About Women. That Doesn't Mean He Was One". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  7. ↑ Rackin, Phyllis (2019-06-08). "The Hidden Women Writers of the Elizabethan Theater". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  8. 1 2 Journalist Elizabeth Winkler reads from Shakespeare Heresies book, 5 May 2023, retrieved 2023-07-11
  9. 1 2 Merritt, Stephanie (2023-06-18). "Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies review – in search of the bard". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  10. ↑ "Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature by Elizabeth Winkler". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  11. ↑ SHAKESPEARE WAS A WOMAN AND OTHER HERESIES | Kirkus Reviews.
  12. ↑ Dudley, Michael (19 May 2023). "Questions aplenty about Bard's backstory". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  13. ↑ Dirda, Michael (21 April 2023). "As we honor Shakespeare, scholars respond to questions about him". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  14. ↑ "Shakespeare was a woman and other Heresies Elizabeth Winkler". deveresociety.co.uk. 2023-06-09. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  15. ↑ SOF (2023-05-23). "Patrick Sullivan reviews Shakespeare was a Woman and Other Heresies by Elizabeth Winkler". Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  16. ↑ Butler, Isaac (2023-05-11). "Shakespeare Was Shakespeare". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2024-02-19.
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