Anne Shakespeare and the Fourth Wave

The emerging fourth wave of feminism has deep roots stretching back to Anne Shakespeare's plays and poems. When we talk of intersectionality (gender, race, colour), of social media (think theatre) and rape culture and violence against women then no-one should be surprised that Anne covered all of these in her plays and poems.

There should not be any doubt that Anne is the author of the Shakespearean canon if one was to read of violence against women, of rape because these figure prominently in her plays and poems. The Rape of Lucrece is a classic study in rape. Rebecca Solnit (2020) summed it up nicely when she pointed out that rape was not just about power (power of men over women's body's) but it needs to be seen as a highly erotic act. Indeed, while power is the underlying driver, the erotic lust provides the male with the justification; women should be thankful that men find them attractive! In this regard, sonnet 129 has much to tell us about lust and its destructive force. The great tragedy Othello should be renamed The Tragedy of Desdemona; Why celebrate the murderous jealousy of a man where his passion is allowed to take precedence over the passion and faithfulness of the woman? What a modern fable this describes; where the woman must pay the price for a man's privilege of "owning" the body, mind and soul of another.

Therefore it is up to us as critics to now interrogate Anne's plays and poems shedding new light on how the feminine voice has been attempted to be silenced. But in Anne we can see the rise of feminist action, in both the strong women she depicts as well as those who are considered "mad". Anne lets us glimpse why this is the case and why we should not just be sympathetic, we need to understand why and how this has occurred and why it is so important that women's stories are told.

More to come.