Shakespeare's Cross-cultural Encounters

The dynamic interplay between three concepts - gender, text, habitat - as metaphors for cross-cultural definition in Shakespeare's drama is explored here. Shakespeare's reinterpretations of stage aliens such as Jews, Moors, Amazons and Gypsies are shown to be the means by which he interrogates a Eurocentric perspective and challenges the caricatures that cultures create of one another. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, de Sousa relies on original archival research and draws on feminist and gender studies, ecology, history, and anthropology. In the process he recovers a wealth of information on race and gender relations in early modern Europe.