The second best bed, or the female unique? Germaine Greer's unlikely championing of love and marriage in Shakespeare's Wife. Issue 87 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McManus, Donald
• Is Part Of: Australian feminist studies. Volume 31:Issue 87(2016)
• Page Start: 95
• Page End: 108
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Feminism -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Australia -- Periodicals; Women's studies -- Periodicals; Women's studies -- Australia -- Periodicals; 305.42
• DOI: 10.1080/08164649.2016.1175044
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0816-4649

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Germaine Greer's remarkable career has obscured her original vocation as a Shakespeare scholar. Her drama criticism stands as a corrective check to the conservative, still male-biased, established word on the popular perception of Shakespeare's legacy. As we perversely celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death, it is instructive to re-visit Greer's contribution to our understanding of what his life and work meant, as well as exploring who best hears his voice today. It would have been an easy thing for Greer to let the world forget her formative years as a Shakespeare scholar, and accept the identity of feminist icon. However, with the publication of Shakespeare's Wife (2009) she reasserted her scholarly and critical identity in a profoundly stimulating way, re-focusing the discussion of love and marriage she broached in The Female Eunuch back to Shakespeare. The most fascinating element of Greer's biography of Ann Hathaway is her ability to shake us back to the fore play of Shakespeare studies with rigorous historical detail. This article explores the points of harmony and contradiction between Greer's Shakespeare criticism and her oft-quoted views on society, sex, marriage and love.