Shakespeare's adolescents

Age, gender and the body in Shakespearean performance and early modern culture

Victoria Sparey

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781526168191
• eBook ISBN: 9781526168184
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism of Shakespeare
• Index: Literature

Shakespeare's adolescents examines the varied representation of adolescent characters in Shakespeare's plays. Using early modern medical knowledge and an understanding of contemporary theatrical practices, the book unpacks complexities that surrounded the cultural and theatrical representations of 'signs' associated with an individual's physical maturation. Each chapter explores the implications of different 'signs' of puberty, in verbal cues, facial adornments, vocal traits and body sizes, to illuminate how Shakespeare presents vibrant adolescent selves and stories.
By analysing female and male puberty together in its discussion of adolescence, Shakespeare's adolescents provides fresh insight into the age-based symmetry of early modern adolescent identities. The book uses the adolescent's state of transformation to illuminate how the unfixed nature of adolescence was valued in early modern culture and through Shakespeare's celebrated characters and actors.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction – misunderstood teens: examining early modern ideas about puberty
• 1 ‘A rose by any other name’: flowering adolescence and the gendering of puberty
• 2 Beards and blushes: fertile complexions in Shakespeare’s plays
• 3 Voicing adolescence: the heated words of puberty
• 4 The maypole and the acorn: body growth and disparities in height in Shakespeare’s plays
• Conclusion – spot the difference: symmetry, difference, and gender in early modern constructions of adolescence
• References
• Index