"Hamlet" Without Hamlet (review)
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Abstract
about narrative sequence are implicated in representations of eroticism” (279). Her test case, as with Smith, is Shakespeare in Love. Analyses of Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece in this volume also center on sexuality. As Richard Rambuss notes, Shakespeare dedicated his first lengthy poem, an erotic epyllion, to a young aristocrat (Southampton) known for his good looks and his refined taste in literature. Rambuss argues against reading the poem in terms of role reversals and androgyny; he chooses instead to emphasize the poem’s “overtones of male friendship, male initiation or coming of age, male homoeroticism, and hyper-masculinity” (242), to the extent that the wild boar becomes not just a foil for the sexually aggressive Venus but more predominantly “an eroticized alternative to her for him” (242). For Coppélia Kahn, The Rape of Lucrece is Shakespeare’s excursus into a founding myth of patriarchy, one that marks a turning point in Roman history; his contribution is to sense a deep instability of the victimized woman as she finds herself bound to a male code of family honor and thereby hindered from speaking for herself. Overall, these volumes offer very valuable service. Some contributions naturally touch upon work done earlier by the writers assigned to a topic, since the volume’s editors have often drafted scholars already recognized for the work they have now been asked to say more about. But the writers have handled this potential burden of familiarity adroitly and have indeed made many important new contributions. In its array of talents, the list of contributors comes close to being a roll call of persons one would like to invite to a high-caliber conference on Shakespeare in all his many accomplishments. These fine volumes constitute such a forum. They should prove valuable for scholars in the field, students at all levels of study, and general readers interested in Shakespeare.