"Speak Again": The Politics of Rewriting in "A Thousand Acres"
2001; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 96; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2001.a828494
ISSN2222-4319
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoThis essay explores the uses to which Jane Smiley puts King Lear in her novel A Thousand Acres. Focusing on the domestic politics of play and novel, it argues that Smiley's rewriting partakes of a long-established tradition of revisioning Shakespeare, while at the same time being radically modern. Although the novel is clearly in part a feminist response to the marginalization of Goneril and Regan in Shakespeare's play, and to their demonization by male critics, it does not simply invert the patriarchal values of Lear, but, rather, by transposing its stories across historical, geographical, generic, and gender boundaries, both exposes and exploits the play's moral ambiguities.
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