ABSTRACT

Shakespeare’s interest in figures whose bodies are spoiled, ruined, or otherwise unable to negotiate the rules of belonging is foregrounded in Antony and Cleopatra, where Antony’s hard and messy form is contrasted with that of the shape-shifting and death-defying Egyptian Queen. ‘Strange flesh’ to her ‘immortal longings,’ Antony’s figure is a source of confusion, danger, and inhumanity in its refusals to conform or make sense or to die. But Shakespeare’s picture is ambivalent, nostalgic, contemptuous, and the incoherence of Antony’s form also evidence of a world which needs to disable some bodies in order to rescue others. Drawing on disability theory, I examine how many of the tropes Shakespeare uses to represent Antony also operate in early modern ballads about freakish creatures, where loathing competes with wonder as ‘strange flesh’ yields to soft selves and ‘inapt’ bodies are made to serve fitter ones.

摘要

莎士比亚对那些身体被宠坏、毁坏或无法协商归属规则的人物的兴趣在安东尼和克利奥帕特拉的作品中表现得淋漓尽致，安东尼强硬凌乱的形象与变形和抗命的埃及女王形成鲜明对比。对于她“不朽的渴望”来说，“奇怪的肉体”，安东尼的形象是混乱、危险和不人道的根源，因为它拒绝顺从、理解或死亡。但莎士比亚的画面是矛盾的、怀旧的、轻蔑的，而安东尼形式的不连贯也证明了这个世界需要让一些身体失去能力以拯救另一些身体。借鉴残疾理论，我研究了莎士比亚用来代表安东尼的比喻中有多少也适用于关于怪异生物的早期现代民谣，