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(2016) Shakespeare and space, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Bronfen reads Antony and Cleopatra as a tragedy of hybrid spaces. Emphasizing the carnivalesque way in which Cleopatra embodies Egypt, Bronfen explores how cross-dressing and gendered masquerade blend with the concept of the king's two bodies expressed in the duality of body natural and body politic, particularly resonant during Queen Elizabeth's reign. Exploiting and confusing this duality, Cleopatra throws open a theatrical space wherever she goes, and conversely, her embodiment on stage, and the dramatic connection between the Egyptian and the English queen, opens up a hybrid space that is both historical and mythical, including, and at the same time going beyond the geopolitical dimension. Finally, Cleopatra's 'self-designed apotheosis' introduces a final moment of hybridity, creating a space of textual regeneration.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-51835-4_6
Full citation:
Bronfen, E. (2016)., Hybrid spaces in Antony and cleopatra, in I. Habermann & M. Witen (eds.), Shakespeare and space, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 103-120.
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