Product Description

One of the most provocative writers on women's performances of Shakespeare on stage and film in Britain today, Rutter speculates on how the theatre `plays' women's bodies and how audiences read them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #301709 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'Situating her alert, agile readings of theatrical and cinematic bodies within a richly suggestive cultural framework, Carol Chillington Rutter offers a highly original contribution to performance studies of Shakespeare's plays. Enter the Body is a lively, compelling book, elegantly conceived and lucidly written. A dazzling performance.' - Barbara Hodgdon, Drake University

From the Back Cover
When the body comes on stage, how does it play? And how do spectators read it? Enter the Body offers a series of provocative case studies of the work womens bodies do on Shakespeares intensely body-conscious stage. Carol Chillington Rutter looks at:
Ophelia in the grave
Cordelia in Lears arms
Cleopatras blackness
Helen of Troys beauty
Rutters topics are sex, death, race, gender, culture, politics, and the excessive performative body that exceeds the playtext it inhabits. She focuses on performances domestic and iconic - Emilia gossiping, Cressida handing over her glove.
As well as drawing upon vital primary documents from Shakespeares day, Rutter then offers close readings of womens performances on stage and film in Britain today, from Peggy Ashcrofts (white) Cleopatra and Whoopi Goldbergs (whiteface) African Queen to Sally Dexters languorous Helen and Alan Howards raver Queen of Troy. Zoe Wanamaker, Imogen Stubbs, Jean Simmons, Helena Bonham-Carter, Janet Suzman, Kate Winslet and Claire Benedict put in appearances in this timely and theatrically sophisticated study.

About the Author
Carol Rutter is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Warwick, UK.

Customer Reviews

That's what Shakespeare is about!!!!!!
For everybody who's intersted in Shakespeare this is the book you can't miss! 177 pages full of great description how actors embody Shakespeare's words in their performances. What makes this book different from others are fresh and amazing approaches. Look for Chapter 3 on Cleopatra. Dr. Rutter argues that most people have a fixed idea of Cleopatra as being white, but that this position is no longer absolute - moreover we should rediscover Cleopatra as the black Queen, who has fascinated many mighty men and many people for many centuries. The books can be probably best described as an attempt to rethink performances, something which is often ignored at university. Many tutors work close with the plays as dead texts - but never think of them as a play text, which actually comes to life through performances. Some are good some are not, but hey that's what Shakespeare is about. Texts which can be interpreted in many ways. It took me one night to read this book! All I can say WOW. Grab and read it!