Shakespeare's women : performance and conception - Mann, David (Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008)
In this book, David Mann examines the influence of the Elizabethan cross-dressed tradition on the performance and conception of Shakespeare's female roles through an analysis of all 205 extant plays written for the adult theatre. The study provides both an historical context, showing how performance practice developed in the era before Shakespeare, and a comparative one, in revealing how dramatists in general treated their female characters and the influence their characterisation had upon Shakespeare's writing.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-279) and indexes.
Keywords: Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616 -- Characters -- Women; Women in literature; Sex role in the theater