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Chapter 3 - On the Other Hand

The White(ned) Woman in Antony and Cleopatra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2023

David Sterling Brown
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Connecticut
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Summary

Chapter 3 homes in on the intersection of femininity and race: to put pressure on Antony’s curious whitening of the Black Egyptian Queen’s hand in the play’s climactic act. Extending the second chapter’s emphasis on gender, “On the Other Hand: the White(ned) Woman in Antony and Cleopatra” positions Cleopatra as collateral damage, caught in the play’s intraracial crossfire. I depict the significant dangers of the whiteness that gets magically mapped onto Cleopatra’s Black body so she can momentarily become a form of what Arthur L. Little, Jr., has described in Shakespeare Quarterly as “Shakespearean white property.” Through Cleopatra’s whitened body and her interracial relationship with Antony (and by extension, the ensuing intraracial tensions caused by Antony’s movement between Egypt and Rome), I further complicate the white other concept to reflect on integral matters such as white property, white dominance and white women as props: patriarchal, theatrical, cultural, economic, domestic props.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • On the Other Hand
  • David Sterling Brown, Trinity College, Connecticut
  • Book: Shakespeare's White Others
  • Online publication: 28 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009384155.005
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  • On the Other Hand
  • David Sterling Brown, Trinity College, Connecticut
  • Book: Shakespeare's White Others
  • Online publication: 28 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009384155.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • On the Other Hand
  • David Sterling Brown, Trinity College, Connecticut
  • Book: Shakespeare's White Others
  • Online publication: 28 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009384155.005
Available formats
×