Revenge and Gender in Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Literature

'The intersection of gender trouble with the ambivalence of revenge provides a theme sufficiently broad to be of general interest, and yet sufficiently well defined to produce a coherent volume, in which intriguing connections are on display between various cultures, periods and textual genres.' Richard Seaford, University of Exeter Explores the representation of revenge from classical to early modern literature This collection explores a range of literary and historical texts from ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Iceland and medieval and early modern England to provide an understanding of wider historical continuities and discontinuities in representations of gender and revenge. It brings together approaches from literary criticism, gender theory, feminism, drama, philosophy and ethics to allow greater discussion between these subjects and across historical periods and to provide a more complex and nuanced understanding of the ways in which ideas about gender and revenge interrelate. Lesel Dawson is a Senior Lecturer at Bristol University. Fiona McHardy is Professor of Classics at the University of Roehampton. Cover image: Adolphe William Bouguereau, French (1825-1905), Orestes pursued by the Furies, 1862, oil on canvas, 91x109 5/8 in. (231.1x2784 cm) (c) Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.623 Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-1409-8

Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgements and Dedication
Introduction: Female Fury and the Masculine Spirit of Vengeance, Lesel Dawson
The Gendering of Revenge
1. Why are the Erinyes Female? or, What is so Feminine about Revenge?, Edith Hall
2. Re-marking Revenge in Early Modern Drama, Alison Findlay
Friends and Family: 'Revenging Home'
3. Vengeance and Male Devotion in Laxdæla saga and Njáls saga, Ian Felce
4. 'Now I am Medea': Gender, Identity and the Birth of Revenge in Seneca's Medea, Kathrin Winter
5. The Avenging Daughter in King Lear, Marguerite Tassi
6. 'Brother Unkind': Annabella's Heart in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Sara Eaton
Women's Weapons
7. Cursing-Prayers and Female Vengeance in the Ancient Greek World, Lydia Matthews and Irene Salvo
8. 'The Power of our Mouths': Gossip as a Female Mode of Revenge, Fiona McHardy
9. 'Women's Weapons': Education and Female Revenge on the Early Modern Stage, Chloe Preedy
Women Transmogrified
10. The Vengeful Lioness in Greek Tragedy: A Posthumanist Perspective, Alessandra Abbattista
11. 'She's Turned Fury': Women Transmogrified in Revenge Plays, Janet Clare
Lamentation, Gender Roles and Vengeance
12. A Phrygian Tale of Love and Revenge: Oenone Paridi (Ovid Heroides 5), Andreas N. Michalopoulos
13. Lament and Vengeance in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Annie Baden-Danetree
14. What's Hecuba to Shakespeare?, Tanya Pollard
15. 'Nursed in Blood': Masculinity and Grief in Marston's Antonio's Revenge, Rebecca Yearling
16. Outfacing Vengeance: Heroic Dying in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and Ford's The Broken Heart, Lesel Dawson
Details of Contributors