A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare

This over‐priced work consists of “Notes on contributors”, a 13‐page introduction, 19 individual essays, and an index. All of the contributors are female university teachers. Most hold positions in US university English departments. Some have made distinguished contributions to Shakespearian scholarship and criticism. Dympna Callaghan’s Introduction ranges in tone from the defensive to the aggressive. She argues that “feminist Shakespearians” are interested in “new knowledge about women in Shakespeare’s time”, in “how the plays may reflect real women”, how the plays “help produce and reproduce ideas about women that then shape, perpetuate, or even disturb prevailing conditions of femininity” (p....