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Palgrave Macmillan

Becoming Cleopatra

The Shifting Image of an Icon

  • Book
  • © 2003

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Introduction: Becoming Cleopatra

  2. Cleopatra and the White Imaginary

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About this book

Cleopatra. Sexy, sultry, political, and racially ambiguous. Moving fluidly from Shakespeare's England to contemporary LA, Francesca Royster looks at the performance of race and sexuality in a wide range of portrayals of that icon of dangerous female sexuality, Cleopatra. Royster begins with Shakespeare's original appropriation of Plutarch, and then moves on to analyze performances of the Cleopatra icon by Josephine Baker, Elizabeth Taylor, Pam Grier (Cleopatra Jones) and Queen Latifah (in Set It Off ). Royster argues that Cleopatra highlights a larger cultural anxiety about women, sexuality, and race.

Reviews

'...a dense but readable book, especially appropriate for 'Women in Film' courses.' - Publishers Weekly Annex

About the author

FRANCESCA ROYSTER is Associate Professor of English at DePaul University, where she teaches courses on Shakespeare, film, and black feminism. She is one of the leading young African American feminist Shakespeare scholars.

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